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WALTER JARVIS BARLOW
HISTORY OF MEDICINE COLLECTION
Biomedical library,
university of california at los angeles
FOUNDATION
OF THE
KING'S HOSPITAL,
Til J '.'■ C/yrcf.' o/fr,-r„& ''Bi I taiiK ^t
'^j'lhh' tC IhfJi ,'pf^
/ fri« ^iJsol I
liARL or OSSORY.
I I'rdiiti.siiit'
THE FOUNDATION
OF THE
HOSPITAL AND FREE SCHOOL
OF
KING CHARLES IL,
OXMANTOWN, DUBLIN,
COMMONLY CALLED THE BLUE COAT SCHOOL.
WITH NOTICES OF SOME OF ITS GOVERNORS, AND OF
CONTEMPOPiARY EVENTS IN DUBLIN FROM THE
FOUNDATION, 1668 TO 184O, WHEN ITS
GOVERNMENT BY THE CITY
CEASED.
BY
^(K Right Hon. Sir FREDERICK R. FALKINER, K.C.
SOMKTl.AIH RECORDER OF DUBLIN.
DUBLIN:
SEALY, BRYERS AND WALKER.
Middle Abbey Street.
1906.
PRINTED BY
SEALY, ERYERS AND WALKER,
MIDDLE ABBEY STREET.
DUBLIN.
■JJtOMea
mi,
PREFACE.
The duty of a governor of King's Hospital to consult its old
records from time to time, led the writer naturally to a
perusal of them all, until the task, sufficiently uninviting at
first, became the subject of a continually increasing interest.
The close connection of the School from its foundation with
the City, whose chief magistrate was, for one hundred and
seventy years, the standing chairman of the governors, and
whose aldermen were always his official colleagues, brought
the life of the school into constant communion with the life
of the city ; whilst the usage, which prevailed during all
this period, of co-opting to the Board distinguished persons
from outside, brought the governors from time to time into
relations with many of the highest personages in church and
state, some of them historical and even illustrious, some less
known, yet, who once were notables or notorious. Under
King Charles's charter, the chief officer of the school, its
chaplain and headmaster, was always appointed with the
direct sanction of the Archbishops of Dublin, who, in the
earlier years, were usually associated as Lords Justices with
the government of the kingdom, and as the government of
the city very often reflected that of the realm, so both will
be found at times to be clearly reflected in the microcosm
of the royal school of the city. Thus the old manuscript of
our ancient Minute Books, sere and dead to the casual glance
become to the student startlingl}'- revivified, as the names of
men long forgotten or half forgotten, rise^up, like the dry
vi PREFACE.
bones in the valley of the prophet, luminous and animate, as
though a breath had entered into them, and the atmosphere
of our school, and its place in our mental vision, are then
re-peopled with phantoms of the past, figures who were once
chief actors on the stage of their day, makers of Dublin in
great transitional epochs of her story. No one can be more
conscious than the writer of the want of due proportion and
of the undue discursiveness in many of the pages that follow.
But if the fact that the governors were, throughout, the men
charged with the rule of the city, and the conduct of its
growth and development, be an inadequate excuse for the
pages which have sought to trace the evolution of our
Capital since the days of the Restoration, may the writer be
permitted at least to hope that he has been enabled to recall
some striking incidents of lasting interest, and to present
them in lights, which, if not wholly new, exhibit them in
relations in which they have not hitherto been familiar.
His ambition will be more than satisfied if he has thus made
even a slight contribution to the History of our Nolu/issiina
Civitas, Dublin.
The sources from which tliese chapters are drawn have
been, for the most part, noted in the text, but a special
acknowledgment is due of their constant indebtedness to
vSir John Gilbert's great Calendar of the City Assembly Rolls,
as continued by his talented widow. To the Corporation of
Dublin, and their most courteous Town Clerk, Mr. Henry
Campbell, and to his friend and brother governor, Mr. F.
Elrmgton Ball, the accomplished author of The History of
Dublin, the author's thanks are here gratefulh/ tendered.
Frederick R. Falkiner.
Axi^i'.st, igoC.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
I. Thomas, Earl of Ossory . . Frontispiece.
{F'/om engraving by Vandervane — Sir Pder Lely,
Pinx.)
FaciDff
IT. Edward Wettenhall, Bishop of Cork, 1678, page
KiLMORE, i6gg . . . , . . . . 41
{From original Portrait by Vander Vaert.)
III. Map OF St. Stephen's Green, as allotted,
1664 .. .. ..43
{From Rental Maps in King's Hospital.)
IV. Map OF Oxmantown Green, as allotted,
1665 . . . . • . 44
{From Rental Maps in King's Hospital.)
V. Original Blue Coat School, as completed,
1675 .. .. ..70
{From Old Engraving in King's Hospital.)
VI. Charles Lucas, M.D. . . , . . . 199
{Photograph of Statue by Edward Smyth in the
City Hall, Dublin.)
VII. Front Facade of present King's Hospital, as
designed by Thomas Ivory . . . , 208
{From Original Plans in British Museum.)
VIII. Very Rev. Walter Blake Kirwan, Dean of
Killala . . . , . . 222
{From Engraving by Dr. Ward from Painting
by Hugh Hamilton.)
This was painted in 1806, after Kirwan's death, and
dedicated in his honour to Lord Hardwick. It ideahzes
a famous scene when Kirwan, after an outburst, broke
down, unable to proceed. Turning towards the orphans
below the pulpit, he pointed to them, in the rapt silence,
with outstretched hands — the effect was electrical.
IX. King Charles II. . . . . . . 293
{From Engraving by Vertue of Original Portrait,
by Sir Peter Lely.)
FOUNDATION
OF THE
Kings Hospital of King Charles II
CHAPTER I.— INTRODUCTORY.
I.
DUBLIN AT THE TIME OF THE RESTORATION.
The foundation of the King's Hospital was one of the
earUest symbols of the new era of hope and energy, which,
notwithstanding the prevalent misery, awoke on the
restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, and was destined to
transform the mediaeval City on the Hill into the modern
capital of Ireland. It is thus a significant page in the
history of Dublin. For it is safe to say, that the face of
the city changed more in the thirty years which followed,
than in the three hundred that preceded. To conceive this,
needs to have a mental vision of the city at the time of
the Restoration, its physical, social, and political conditions.
To aid such a conception is the motive of these preliminary
pages.
If a citizen of to-day, standing on the central spot of
our main thoroughfare, the middle of Carlisle or O'Connall
Bridge, could see in vision the prospect eastward as his
ancestor saw it in 1660, he could no longer believe he was
in his native city. The ancestor could only have viewed
from that point if perched on the rigging of an up-river
2 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL.
craft, for then the Old Bridge alone crossed the Liffey,
joining the Church Street and the Bridge Street on the site
of the primaeval Ford of Athcliath. Our visionary might
rub his eyes and dream he was looking seaward from a
railway carriage crossing the salt lake at Malahide, at dunes
and sandbanks, the glory of golfers, and level reaches,
brown and gray at the ebb, but regained by ocean at high
tide ; through these the river wound her channel deviously
to the bar and the bay. No quay or sea rampart bound
the jagged coasts of the estuary diverging north and south
to Clontarf and to Merrion. The north shore trended
obliquely behind where the O'Connell statue stands to the
further end of Abbey Street, and thus to the causeway,
still known as the North Strand, to mark by its name the
old sea-line as it passed to Ballybough and the estuary of
the Tolka. The tides twice daily overflowed the sites of
Eden Quay and the Custom House, the Amiens Street
station and ail east of it, and the miles of harbour causeway,
now known as the North Wall. Landward of tliis coast
were slob grounds slashed with briny pools, behind which
rolled green houseless iields upward into the country at
Finglas and Artane. So, too, the south-east coast was an
unbanked beach. Close to the right of our view-point
was a creek covering the sites of Westmoreland, D'Olier
and College Streets, and the Theatre Royal. This was the
estuary of the riveret Steyne, the mill stream of the old
priors of All Hallows, precursors of Trinity College. College
Green, so late as 1657, is said to adjoin the seaside. This
stream flowed into it opposite the College gates. The
space is still traceable underground. ^ More than thirty
years ago the writer had part in a bitter battle about the
erection of the Provincial Bank in College Street. The
contract assumed the foundations would be on ordinary
terra firma, but the diggers went down down through
nineteen feet of sludge, till the cost of the foundations nearly
equalled the superstructure, and the fight of bank and
builder raged through many Courts for the benefit of the
* Gilbert's Calendar of Dublin Corporation Records, iv. 121.
DUBLIN AT THE TIME OF THE RESTORATION. 3
law. Charles Haliday tells of a poor servant maid drowned
some sixty years ago, when a high tide broke into a basement
at foot of Grafton Street. From this creek the coast went
eastward under the causeway of Lazars or Lazie Hill in the
line of Townsend Street, between which and the University
precincts lay cattle-sprinkled pastures. Lazie Hill was
so called from a very ancient hospice at the far and isolated
end, projected for lepers under vow to embark for the
shrine of St. James of Compostello. Near the present
S. Mark's Church, the coast swerved to the right by the
back of where Merrion Square stands, as famous then for
snipe as now for ladies, under the upland of Holies and Lower
Mount Street, by the site of Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital
to the Beggar's Bush and the Dodder ; here it met a ridge
of land running back to the bay in a spit, shaped like a hockey
staff, the twist of which was the Ringsend. This was
corruptly spelled even in 1660, for it means the end, not of
the " Ring," but of the " Rinn or point." Thus between
S. Marks and Ringsend a great gulf was fixed, flooding all
the first mile of the now Wicklow railway, the Lansdowne
football ground, the gas works and canal harbour. Here
a collier was wrecked on the site of Dun's hospital two
hundred years ago. Into this gulf rushed the rapid Dodder,
" the brook of Refarnham," without respect of persons in
time of floods, for in 1629 it drowned the hope of one of the
first families of the city, son of Sir William Usher, who was
clerk of the Privy Council and kinsman of the great Primate.
The lad was crossing the ford, where Ballsbridge crosses
now, on his way to town from the port at Ringsend, whence
a car fared to Lazie Hill, carrying passengers at fourpence
each, and passing over the sands at low water. Young
Usher's fate forced the building of a stone bridge, on Sidney
Smith's principle that the sacrifice of a bishop in a railway
smash alone would force directors to take requisite pre-
caution. In the very year our Hospital was completed,
1674, our founders, the Corporation, projected the forming
in this Dodder gulf the great harbour of Dublin, and imported
a famed engineer from London, Andrew Yarranton, whose
4 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL.
plans, comprising a royal fort on the site of Merrion Square,
are still extant. Behind the Ringsend spit spread the
dunes of the south Bull, stretching in flats to Merrion and
Booterstown, sweeping over the low-lands of Sydney Parade
and to the coniines of Old Dunleary — Fort of Leoghaire
Arch-King of Erin, when Patrick our first saint came — to be
changed to Kingstown, when George, first gentlemati
in England, came to visit us in 1821. Through these
eastern sands the river channels wound, forming four pools —
Clontarf Pool and Salmon Pool, north and south of a flounder-
shaped sandbank, and further east between the roaring
North and South Bulls, the Poolbeg or Little Pool,
and the Iron Pool, where the estuary merged in the
ocean. -
But we are not to think of this eastern Dublin as of a
dismal swamp, Dantean Cocytus of slush and sands. Dublin
has always had a faculty of being jolly under creditable
circumstances, and it is a question whether this scene had
not in the Stuart times an animated variety, which for all
its increase it lacks to-day. At Ringsend the larger vessels
lay stranded at ebb, till lifted by the tide ; they transhipped
their cargoes into gabbards and barges which sailed up
the Estuary to the Wood and Merchant's Quays, which stood
as now, to unload at the old Custom House, which then
was at the foot of the present Parliament Street. Even
sea-going vessels to a draught of six feet could go up on
high, spring tides. Maps 3 of the age show the pools at
Ringsend crowded with three masted ships, and perhaps
there were more of these direct from foreign parts than now,
when Dublin imports come chiefly in cross-channel steamers.
The wide space on Wood Quay still attests where the
wine barrels were trundled straight from Bordeaux and
the Tagus to the foot of the old Vicus Tabernorum, Wine-
Tavern Street. Viceroys in the eighteenth century landed
and left in state at Ringsend. In 1649 iron Oliver in
2 Capt. Grenville Collins' Map, 1686 ; Haliday's Scandinavian Kingdom
of Dublin, p. 233.
■■' Yarr ant ton's Map, 1674; Gill Cal., Vol. V.; Rocque's Map, 1776,
Scan. Dub., 113
DUBLIN AT THE TI MEOF THE RESTORATION. 5
person disembarked with his 13,000 Ironsides for the terrible
campaign, the echoes of which still roll at times through
the imperial parliament. In 1657, when his son, Henry,
was Lord Deputy, the good frigate of war, Lambay Castle,
was launched so far up river as Lazie Hill. There was a
thriving herring fishery at Ringsend, salmon were netted
in the Salmon Pool, and in the Clontarf Pool was a famous
oyster bed, which survived till sanitation and sewer gas
poisoned it to death. The Lord Mayor and Recorder had
large admiralty jurisdiction under royal charters, and their
chronic conflicts with the royal Admiralty at Ringsend,
where the jurisdictions joined, gave a lively interest even
to Coroner's inquests.
And in 1660 these sands were still wTitten with great
memories, for they were then nearly as on that Good Friday,
1014, when King Sitric Silkenbeard and his Queen, the
daughter of the Great Brian, watched from the city battle-
ments the fearful drawn battle, surging from Mary's Abbey
to Clontarf, watching all day in tremulous tension like
the chorus from the towers of Thebes, when the Seven
Champions were storming the walls, he to see his Ostmen
allies driven to their ships or into the sea, she to learn at
night of the three generations of her kinsmen in the battle
slain, the grand old Boroimhe himself, his hero son, Murrough,
his grandson boy Turlough transfixed and drowned in the
Tolka weir at Clonliffe. There on the south bank still
stood in 1660, the Pillar Stone of the Steyne by the creek,
marked by Sir Philip Crampton's swan fountain now, just
as it had been erected eight hundred years before by the
invading Vikings, the symbol of their conquest, and the
signal for their fleets, where they would land and draw
up their war canoes on the beach, like the Argives at
Ilium. The Steyne gave its name to all the confines between
the sea-shore and road to Baggot's rath, now the Baggot
Streets ; in the centre lay Trinity College, the old All Saints
Juxta Dublin ; its Nassau Street boundary was then the
depressed causeway of S. Patrick's Well Lane. The pillar
of the Steyne was the story of three hundred Scandinavian
6 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL.
years written in stone, it still lives only in the parchments
of some of our old city leases.
Westward of our point of vision, was more to identify the
Dublin of 1660 with that of 1906. Both coasts, indeed,
were still pebbly and embanked, and behind the northern slobs
were green meadows to the line of Capel Street where S.
Mary's Abbey rose. This shore is still commemorated
by the Strand Street of to-day, though now severed from
the water by the houses and embankment of Ormond Quay,
but the shores were now converging towards river shape,
and beyond the Abbey rose the tower of S. Michan's Church
as now, and opposite to it the tower of Christchurch on the
hill of the High Street ; and behind these the sunset sky,
seen sometimes then as sometimes now, a sky-scape of glory,
more pathetic for the luminous city vapours, and which is
not to be surpassed in Ireland and therefore in the world.
The south shore coursed along Fleet Street, then known as
the Strete of the Strand, but close by the old Custom^ House*
where Dollard's paper factory stands now, it turned into a
creek piercing up to the Lower Castle Yard, forming the
estuary of the Poddle, which flow^ed in through the low
ground below the Castle Creek, most noteworthy in this,
that this was of old, the Blackpool or Dhubv Lynn, from
which our beloved city is named. At its land end was an
ancient mill-pond and dam, which gave name to the Dam.as
gate, chief portal of the city proper close by, and to Damas,
now Dame .Street, which ran through little more than a
narrow lane to the corner of Trinity Street, where was the
extreme portal the Blind Gate, opening to Hoggen Green^
which adjacent to the aew university had alread\' begun
to be called College Green. No relic of this pristine Dhubvlin
now lingers visibly, save the sluice gate of the Poddle, under
the wall of Wellington Quay, familiar only to the seagulls
hovering immemorially from the cliffs of Howth and Lambay
to dance their airy minuets round the entrance, aiding the
tides in their daily task of ablution, and our sanitary
authority pending the long promised main drainage.
To the left of our stand point, the sight was pleasant,
DUBLIN AT THE TIME OF THE RESTORATION. 7
where the shore ran along the Fleet or Strand Street, with
the bright gardens and villas of a few magnates behind with
watergates to the river, their front gates in Hoggen Green
and Damas Street, The eastern end, now the site of the
Bank of Ireland, had been granted sixty years before to
Sir George Carey, to whom Falkland was kin, on the terms
of his building a bridewell and Free School. These proved
abortive, and Sir Arthur Chichester, first Lord Belfast, was
granted the site in fee farm for six and eight pence a year^
Sir Arthur telling the city that he might have it as well as
any one else ; he too was under terms to complete the
abortive bridewell into a school, but instead Chichester
House was built — " just opposite the College " — This was
one of our chief mansions at the Restoration, and here sat the
Court of Claims and other public functionaries. Near it
was the villa of Sir ^Arthur Annesley, representative of
Dublin in Richard Cromwell's Parliament of 1659. In the
city gift it is said to be adjoining the seaside. Annesley
was created Earl of Anglesea, and his gardens are
commemorated in Anglesea Street. Further west was the
mansion of the Lord Chancellor Eustace, given him by the
King on the restoration, and still marked by the street of
his name, and beyond this, reaching to the Black Pool and
Damas Gate, lay the home of Sir John Temple, Master of
the Rolls, father of Swift's Sir William, and ancestor of
Lord Palmerston ; this fronted to Damas Street and its
memory is preserved in Temple Bar.
On the further side of these villas spread the Hoggen
Green, between the city walls and the University, and back
to the south as far as old Stephen Street, and the waste
common of St. Stephen's Green. It was pierced on the city
side by S. George's Lane, now South Great George's Street.
Though sprinkled with some homesteads, it was still the
chief pleasance of the to\\'n. On the left it merged in the
Mynchen Fields that covered the space of Dawson and
Kildare Streets to the marshes of Merrion Square, the old
lands of the Mynechen's Mantle, or S. Mary del Hoggen,
founded for elderly nuns by Dermot MacMurrough, before
8 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL.
the Anglo-Norman Invasion. Where St. Andrew's Church
now stands was the Bowhng Alley, a primaeval recreation
ground, where the archers shot in Plantagenet times, and
behind this another place of sport, called Tib and Tom,
where merry makings of the city youth were held before the
Restoration and after. But right in front of the Bowling
Alley facing Chichester House rose the most striking
historic Memorial in the city bounds. — The Danish
Mount. Under the enlightened regime of Strafford,
the City Assembly passed an Ordinance " that no
parcel of the Greenes or Commons of the City, Hoggen
Green, S. Stephen Green, and Oxmantown Green shall
henceforth be lett, but wholly kept for the use of the
citizens to walk and take the air, by reason this citie is at
this present very populous," and the Mayor was forbidden
even to read any petition to the contrary, under the then
dread penalty of £40. Such a law was of course doomed to
mutability, even Lord Meath could not have preserved such
a policy of open spaces, which the march of time was sure
to trample down, but it is a sore pity that it could not
preserve one of our most ancient landmarks, which any city
in the world might be jealous to uphold. This was the Thin-
mote or Thing-mount, which gave name to the Green, the
Ostman Hogge or hill, which still in 1660 rose seventy feet
over the river level.
Here the townspeople gathered in the summer evenings,
for the prospect was splendid over land and city and sea.
The Ordinance was passed when the city was prosperous,
but the necessities of the Restoration times compelled
sales of the city lands. In 1661 the Corporation therefore
leased the Hill site to the Bishop of Meath, Dr. Jones,
who was then contemplating the erection of St. Andrew's
Church, as the old parish Church at the Damas Gate was
ruinous, and who had also bought the Bowling Green for
that purpose, but in the lease of the Hill was a reservation
to the city of a passage from the top to the bottom of the
'Mount — " for their common prospect," and a covenant that
no building or other thing should be erected for
DUBLIN AT THE TIME OF THE RESTORATION. 9
obstructing of said prospect. But in 1685, alas ! the whole
was removed by the most flagrant act of Vandalism of that
improving age. A fine view might be had elsewhere, but
not the Thingmount, thronged with reminiscences that should
never have been effaced.
For this was the Hill of Council of our Norse makers of
Dublin, their centre of legislature and judicature, of public
meeting and moot, their House Things or Hustings, their
place of games and of doom. Sanctified, too, by religious
awe, for the Vikings, pro more raised these " Things " in
correlation to their Landing Steynes, erecting near them
stone circle temples to Thor and Freya, and we may well
think that the Churches of St. Andrew's and St. Mary, both
on Hoggen Green in Plantagenet times, and known as St.
Andrew Thingmote, and St. Mary del Hogge, replaced these
temples here when the North men turned Christian. For
the rule of the missionaries, as counselled by Gregory the
Great, was not to destroy pagan temples, but to transform
them, conciliating their converts by following old forms,
and replacing stone circles by rounded Campaniles ; and
it is scarcely a coincidence that this new St. Andrew's Church
was circular in form, and was known as the Round Church,
till burned in Queen Victoria's time. The Mount was the
scene of a very high comedy in the Strongbow Conquest-
His lieutenant Milo de Cogan, about to join battle with
Hasculf Mac Torkill, our Ostman King, just relanded at the
vSteyne with Scandinavian reinforcements, to expel the
invaders, feared an attack in the rere from the O'Byrne's
clansmen of the Wicklow and Dublin hills. So he made
treaty with Gylemeholmoc, then chief, and lord of Glencree
and Kilruddery, by which the O' Byrne and his clan were
to look on at the battle, and " if God grant us (Norman) to
defeat these folk (Ostmen), you are to help us to follow them,
but if we prove recreant, you are to join them to slay and
torture us." On this pledge Gylemeholmoc " gaily went
out, and now is this King truly seated with his people upon
the Hoggen over Steyne outside the city in the plain to
behold the melee." Here he sat on the top of the Thingmote,
10 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL.
impartial as a Nationalist leader at a Ministerial crisis,
waiting events, whether he will join Tory or Radical in the
lobbies. And next year when Henry II. came in person to
win the lordship of Ireland, the wily Plantagenet knowing
the Thingmote was the scene of election of the Ostman
Kings, and its religious sanctity, chose it rather than the
the fortress at the Castle, where to meet the Irish Chiefs,
and obtain their homage. Here " he caused a royal palace
to be constructed wonderfully by wythes after the manner
of the Country, close by the Church of St. Andrew the
Apostle outside the city," feasted there the Chieftains,
entertained them with military sepctacles and games on
the Green, and dismissed them with presents, having held
with them the solemn festival of Christmas, 1172.4 At the
Thingmote in later Plantagenet years, was erected under
statutes of the Pale,.^ butts for Archery, wheie all men
between sixty and sixteen would muster and shoot up and
down three times every feast day in summer, which at the
Restoration had become the Dublin Bowling Green.
The Thingmote was " the fortified hill near the College,"
the scene of a fierce meeting of Cromwell's soldiers in 1647,
which the mutineers seized as a place of vantage, and held it
until at midnight they were received to mercy.
The removal of the Thingmount and the Pillar of the
Steyne was of a landmark, that had connected Dublin
with all the misty romance of the Northmen, with the
Tingshogen of Sweden, the Pillar Stones of the Shetlands
and Orkney, with Staines and Runnymede, and with La
Hogue in Normandy, and thus they tied us to the times
when the Ivars, Godfreys, Sitrics, Olafs were kings at once
both in Dublin and Northumbria, Lords of the Isles whose
war cries were heard often —
Breaking the silence of the seas,
Amongst the farthest Hebrides :
in the times when King Olaf sailed from Athcliath to contest
the crown of England with Athelstane at Brunnanburgh,
■* Hoveden, cited in Haliday's Scand. Duh., 183.
^ 5 Edw. 4.
DUBLIN AT THE TIME OF THE RESTORATION. ii
when contingents from the Liffey joined Rollo up the Seine,
when he went to win the Duchy of Normandy, and to breed
the iron race of Wilham the Conqueror. The Ostmen who
raised this Thingmount we call Goths, but surely they were
Vandals who displaced it, and it is sad to record that a
distinguished Recorder was the chief Vandal. Sir William
Davys' house was opposite the College, where the Provost's
house is now, in restoration times, then he took up the
Bishop of Meath's lease of the Thingmount, and had a grant
of the mount free of the conservative covenants ; he became
Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and to enlarge his garden
carted away our Mons Sacer to make the embankment on
S. Patrick's Well Lane to be named Nassau Street, after
King William came.*^
But the life of the town was in the little walled city on
the hill, and the few streets raying out thence in starfish
wise ; little, but packed with varied vitality, quaint mediaeval
and signally picturesque, its area occupied forty-five acres
only. The ancient wall was just a statute mile in its devious
girth, pierced by eight towered gates, loop-holed and port-
cullised, between which rose sixteen other pinnacled turrets
bristling along or in front of the curtain. Three of the Gates
were in the eastern Wall : the Damas Gate, leading up to
the Castle ; the Pole Gate, adjoining S. Werburgh's Church,
giving access from Bride Street by a bridge over the Poddle.
It was through this Milo de Cogan made his decisive charge
which broke the Ostmen and secured the English invasion.
S. Nicholas Gate, with double towers, one hundred and fifty
yards further west, had also a bridge over the Poddle with
access to S. Patrick's Street, and S. Nicholas' Church close
by within the walls. Between Damas and the Pole gates
was the Bermingham Tower, alas, alone and but partially
surviving, and Stanihurst's Tower, seventy yards beyond the
Castle wall. Between the Pole Gate and S. Nicholas, was
Genevel's Tower round, three stories high, with timber lofts
'' The exact site of the Thingmount is fixed by a comparison of the
leases made by the city, which are specified in the 4th and 5th volume
of Gilbert's Citv Calendars Messrs. Walpole's warehouses occupy it now.
12 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL.
above. The three ports in the south wall were the New Gate,
at the end of Cornmarket, from which the great city prison
was called; beyond which S. Thomas Street ran out into the
country, Gormond's Gate at the west end of Cooke Street,
and the Bridge Gate close near, south of the Old Bridge of
Dublin. Between S. Nicholas and the New Gate were three
towers — Sarsfield's, Segrave's, and Pagan's. Fitzsimon's
tower, between New Gate and Gormond's, and Harbard's
tower, between Gormond's and the Bridge. On the northern
wall behind the Merchant's and Wood Qua3^s, w^ere the
Wine Tavern Gate and S. Audeon's Gate, added to the
more ancient defences about the time of Bannockburn,
when the city, alarmed by the invasion of Edward Bruce,
and not content with the river protection, built them out
of the stones of the Dominican Abbey, the site of the present
Four Courts, burnt to the ground some years before. Along
these two quays, and between wall and river, were Prichett's
tower, Fyan's Castle at the end of Fishamble Street, then
Casey's, Isoult's, and Buttevant's towers in succession,
the last where the south end of Essex Bridge is now, with
Bysses' tower, completing the circuit, between this and the
Damas Gate.
The graphic aspect of the walls was enhanced by the
architectural diversities : neither gates nor towers were of
like pattern ; some were square, some round, some demi-
round ; some were three storied, some two ; some were
nearly level with the ramparts ; some had five loop-holes,
some three, some two ; some had wooden attics, rising over
the storied walls ; some were only seventy yards distant
from the neighbouring tower, the intervals varied, but
one hundred and fifty yards was the maximum. The
Castle Gate and New Gate were occasionally decorated with
the heads of eminent rebels. And the names of the many
towers were various as their styles. It was a very old
custom for the city to lease them to eminent citizens or
guilds, by whose names they were called from time to time,
just as government sometimes have dealt with the Martello
towers, the lessees being bound to preserve or surrender
DUBLIN AT THE TIME OF THE RESTORATION. 13
them if needed for defence. Thus Stanihurst was leased
to the old recorder, father of Richard, who wrote the Irish
section for Holinshed's chronicles ; Buttevant was known
as Newman's in the Stuart period, from Jacob Newman,
the father of Sir James Ware's wife. Fyan's Castle became
Proudfoot's after the Restoration. Bysse's was leased in
Strafford's time to the father of Sir John Bysse, Chief Baron
at the Restoration, to whom the city renewed in respect of
his eminent services as recorder, adding the tower over
Damas Gate, all for ninety-nine yeais, at six and eight-
pence yearly. Then Gormond's Gate, legendarily referred
to Gormo the Ostman, was corrupted into " Ormond's "
in the great Duke's day, and then, again to Wormwood
Gate, the name which still abides to mark the site of our
vanished bulwark."
But the name which charms most is Isoult's Towers,
Stanihurst says it took the name from " La Belle Isoult,
daughter to Angus, King of Ireland." How came this Irish
beauty into the Arthurian legend ? There was an Angus,
King of Munster, about the time of Patrick, and the shadowy
Arthur's, and the best opinion now bases the Table Round on
the traditions of the Celtic bards, Welsh, Irish, or of
North Britain, indubitably then connected with Armorica
and Brittany, where the romance expanded under the harps
and the lutes of the troubadours of France. Scarlet Lane
threaded up west of the present Parliament Street from
Isoult's Tower to the Castle. Outside the Walls were at
least six other gates at furthest end of the radiating streets.
S. James' still marked by the name of the great brewery,
S. Thomas guarding the precincts of S. Thomas and Donore,
S. Patrick's close by the great Cathedral, S. Kevin's near hand,
guarding the Archbishop's Palace of S. Sepulchre. The
Hogs, closing the entrance to the White Friars by S. Stephen's
Street, and the Blind Gate at the further end of Damas
Street leading into the Hoggen or College Green.
"^ When the above was written, the writer had not seen Mr. Leonard
Strangways admirable map of the old walls, prefixed to C. Litton Falkiner's
Illustrations of Irish History. Our nomenclatures do not all coincide, for
many gates and towers were differently known at different periods.
14 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL.
The main artery of old Dublin pierced the walled city
from Damas to New Gate, through dense congestion.
Passing the Castle to the top of the Fish Shambles Street,
it contracted into the streetlet, Skinner's Row, running in
the present line of Christ Cliurch Place to the High Street,
narrow as the Ghetto of a Continental town, only seventeen
feet from house to house, which, with basement, cellars below
and projections above, gave only twelve feet for the
carriages, which could scarcely pass each other. Yet this was
the very heart of Mid-Dublin, for on the right between it
and the Cathedral were the Four Courts, for which James I.
took lease of the old house of the Priors of Holy Trinity and
Deans of Christ Church, whilst on the left corner next High
Street was our Guildhall or City Tholsel, where the Mayors
were chosen, and the Corporation met, where the Recorder's
Court held unlimited jurisdiction — Civil and Criminal —
within the City, often, too, used by the King's Courts and
at times by the Parliament. Here, too, was the home of the
Publishers ; their trade fared ill in the Civil Wars, but after
the Restoration they swarmed, so that the narrow streets
were busy like Paternoster Row and Ava Maria Lanes, and
there were far more Publishers within the limits of the old
walls than in all broad Dublin to-day.
In the open between Skinner's Row and High Street,
where Nicholas Street intersects, was " the chief and
ancientest monument of this city " ; repaired as such some
forty years before, for our memorials were held in honour
of old. This was the High Cross, the very core of the city,
where the public proclamations were read and the public
penitents would stand, clothed in white sheets, white wands
in their hands, white paper caps on their heads inscribed
with their sins. The atonement of Constance Kynge and
her paramour here in Elizabeth's time reads dour and quaint
as a chapter of Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter. One of the latest
ordeals here was that of Eliza Jones, her forehead inscribed :
" For harbouring a Collegian," contrary to an Act of State
of Strafford forbidding any Fellow, student, or scholar, to
enter an Ale-house without permission under the Provost's
DUBLIN AT THE TIME OF THE RESTORATION. 15
hands. How many such hcences the Provost issued we are
not informed.
The area round the High Cross was the centra] market.
The Cross had steps about it like Nelson's Pillar, and a vivid
scene was here. So as "not to pester the market," the flour
sellers were to stand on those steps, the butter sellers with
firkins in front must stand out in the street in lines of six
each to allow passage between the intervals ; the bacon-
sellers in like lines on stools in front of them ; the bakers
were to stand along the wall of S. Michael's, whilst larger
wares were relegated outside the walls. At the Castle Street
end of the strait Skinner's Row was the great lantern-shaped
Pillory.
Thus this centre was like the Forum at Rome, the focus of
intellectual, commercial and civic life.
It was the centre of other things, notably strong drink,
wherein Dublin has ever held high place. '^ Here was " Hell "
in a sunk passage between tlie Four Courts and Cathedral,
far below the aisles, further from God by reason of the
propinquity. Some thought it was so called in compliment
to the law, but it certainly reeked of the drink-demon.
Famous or infamous, it caught the fancy of Burns to im-
mortalize it in his satire on the Doctors, Death and Dr.
Hornbook, saying his tale " is just as true 's the Deils in Hell
or Dublin City." The place was soaked with cellar taverns
in the basements of the Cathedral, with whose rulers rested
the original blame. In early Tudor times they leased them for
wine taverns, and a century after there were seven of these
paying rent to the Chapter. The Dragon, Red Lion, Red
Stag, Star, Ship, Half Moon, and Hell. These things vexed
the great soul of Strafford, who did his own " thorough "
best to suppress them ; his denunciatory letter to Archbishop
Laud is like the scourge of small cords that purified the
Temple. But even Strafford's strength could not prevail
against the gates of hell. In the days of the Restoration
there were 1,180 public houses and 91 public breweries in
the little city, and in a Celtic letter from an Irish priest in
* Gilbert's History of Dublin, i., t,^.
i6 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL.
Rome, in 1667, it is called the city of the Wine Flasks.
Wine was the old staple, it is fluent even in the Charters of
King John, and for the Scottish War of his son, Henry III.,
fifty-four hogsheads of red wine were actually exported
from Dublin to his army. In Mary Tudor 's reign, Patrick
Sarsfield, ancestor of the hero of Limerick, most hospitable
Mayor of Dublin, spent twenty tuns of claret in his year,
1554, over and above white wine, sack, malvoisie and
muscatel. In the next reign, Blount, Lord Mountjoy, sold
the wines of France and Spain by pints and quarts in his
own cellars. The very drovers would not return from the
fairs till they had drunk the price of cow or horse in the
" King of Spain's daughter," as sherry was called. She
was also known as Usquebaugh, for the time of whiskey was
not yet fully come. But that of ale was with a vengeance.
Tempore James I. we read " it had sale every day in the
week, every hour in the day, and every minute in the hour,
for every woman is free to brew, and as many householders
in Dublin so many brewers. The better sort are the alder-
men's wives, and their husbands wink at it." This was pro-
bably because they thus earned their own pinmoney. Barnaby
Rych, who writes this, concludes that the whole profit of the
town rests on ale houses. If alive to-day he could say little
else. At the Restoration the drink river ran in rival currents
like the Rhone and Arve. < When the Duke of Ormonde entered
as Lord Lieutenant in 1665, a conduit was set up in the
Corn Market, from which wine flowed free for the citizens
at large.
If churches could have checked it there were plenty of
these, for this was church centre too. Five clustering round
the Mother Cathedral : — S. John's, separated by a lanelet only,
on the river side ; St. Michael's close by at the corner of High
Street on the site of our Synod Hall ; S. Audeon's, or Owen's,
further down the street. On the opposite of the main artery
S. Werburgh's as now, but near and within the Pole Gate ; and
S. Nicholas, similarly within the gate of that name, all
parishes at the Restoration as they had been for ages. The
Cathedral, S. Michael's, S. Nicholas', founded by theOstmen,
DUBLIN AT THE TIME OF THE RESTORATION 17
S. Audeon's by the Strongbow conquerors, for the paladins
De Courcy and Armoric de S. Lawrence had taken their
oaths of chivalry at S. Ouen in Rouen, where the bones of
Coeur de Lion not long after lay, and so S. Ouen's was founded
here to connect Dublin ever after with one of the fairest
Gothic Churches in Christendom.
Outside the Damas Gate was old S. Andrew's ; S. Bride's
outside the Pole Gate, with S. Patrick's Cathedral at the
foot of the long street ; S. Peter's and S. Stephen's not far
eastward ; S. Catherine's in James' Street. Thus the old city
had some claim to be Capital of the Island of Saints.
And the little city was merry with music. For a
century before the Restoration the city maintained a band,
not merely official trumpeters and drummers, but " a
full concert of good musicians," clothed in light blue livery
of broad cloth, which was voted them yearly with ninepence
quarterly each by rents of the twenty-four aldermen, six-
pence from each of the forty-eight of the Upper and four-
pence from each of the Lower houses of the Council. For
this they must work hard, every Sunday, Tuesday and
Thursday in the year, and at all civic functions beside.
But then they had a monopoly, being authorised to arrest
all stranger musicianers. The band sank low in the Civil War,
but the city music reappeared at the Restoration on the
entry of the Duke of Ormonde. A restoration of the custom
might settle something now such as the nuisance of the
Greman bands and the organs.
Nearly everyone lived in town from the Viceroy down
until the renaissance of the Restoration. How they were
packed is hard to say, unless they slung hammocks in the bed-
rooms, like berths in steamers. So through the narrow ways,
ports and passages, sauntered or pressed the motley crowds,
perriwigged courtiers, ermined judges, civic magnates,
fur robed in scarlet and violet, gowned churchmen, wigged
lawyers, doctors alert or grave, hurrying merchants
obstructed anon by the " idle women and maydens," the
apple women and orange girls wherever they could plant a
stool, and who survived to our day round the College Gate
c
i8 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
and Carlisle Bridge. And with these the " idle boys without
any lawful calling," precursors of the corner boys who are
still with us. For all these casuals a law was made only the
year before the Restoration, unfortunately obsolete now,
by which beadledom was to arrest and set them in a cage
in the Cornmarket built at the city charge, for as yet we had
no Zoological Gardens, where the happy family would well
repay a visit. Soldiers' uniforms brightened the scene, for
there were two city regiments, of which the Mayor and one
of the Sheriffs were respective colonels ; Kiliarch's both,
for there were a thousand men in each, and soon came
Ormonde's Royal Guards. And all were in perpetual peril
of the carmen furiously driving through streets and unpaved
strands. In the previous reign " their speediness " was
repressed by law, but at the Restoration they were badged
and reduced, first to thirty, then fifty, of whom the
majority were to hazard outside the Walls, only a few being
admitted to stand within the city. But this asphyxia could
not hold out in the face of modern ideas. The open spaces
laws were repealed spite of the shrieks of the vested
interests within the city, where the house rents were
enhanced by the want of room. Already the tide had set
suburbwards, then it came with a rush. One by one the
old gates vanished like cloud castles in the air. Verily the
thoroughfares that have replaced them, now chiefly slums,
are but sorry equivalents. Mediaeval Dublin died with the
dismantling of her towers.
r 10 ]
TI.
OXMAXTOIVN.
The Blue Coat School still bears this name which once
comprised the whole of Dublin north of the Liffey.
Place names are the hieroglyphics of history. Osmantown,
the villa Ostmanorum, is the sole word-record here of the
race that founded Dublin and ruled it three hundred years
with an influence upon our history more potent than is often
recognized. For the maritime Ostmen having made Dublin
their chief place, the maritime English, by its capture, were
able to make it the fulcrum of their power. It was the genius
of the Norse colonies to merge with the natives when thev
were allowed to do so, as they did in Normandy, in
England, and in Italy, but which the Irish were slow to
allow, though the merging was beginning when the English
came ; but coalescing with the vanquished, the victors made
Dublin their capital, and seat of their empire through all
the ages since.
The victors did not purport to conquer Ireland. Henry II.
was content with the homage of the Irish Chiefs, whom he
banqueted on College, then Hoggen, Green, under the
Ostman Thingmount ; he even confirmed O'Connor as
Arch King of Ireland. Leinster, indeed, he left to Strong-
bow, not as conquered, but by right of his wife, Eva, the
daughter of MacMorrough, the Leinster King, but the
Ostman dominion he appropriated, probably to the joy of
their Irish enemies. This reached over the lowlands of
Wicklow and Dublin, from Arklow south to Skerries and
Gormanston north, and east to west from Howth to Leixlip,
all Ostman names, amongst, perhaps, not fift}^ which
still abide in Ireland. Their realm is still marked by the See
of Dublin, whose limits are the same ever since Gregory, the
Ostman, became Archbishop of Dublin in 1152 ; it was also
marked for ages by the admiralty jurisdiction of the ]\Iayor
and Recorder along the coast-line from Wicklow to ]\Ieath.
The Liffey plain to the Meath borders was Fingal, the fi^ie
or district of the stranger, or perhaps, simply the finn, or
20 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
white stranger, many of the people of which still in their
light hair and impassive mien bear the traces of their
Ostman lineage. It was largely owned by the Thorkills, of
the family of the King Hasciilph Mac Thorkill, whom
Strongbow conquered— Thor Gille, Votary of the God of
Thunder. The city and its suburbs by the sea from Black-
rock to Clontarf, Henry gave to his men of Bristol, and
afterwards to his citizens of Dublin, as defined by the charter
of Prince John, his son, in 1192, and as perambulated for
centuries by the Corporation triennially in festive cavalcade.
The Ostmen were not driven from the city, but the walled
fortress on the Castle Hill was held and colonized by the
victors. As a community, the Ostmen were confined to
the north bank of the Liffey, where they had long since
formed a suburb round the church built by IMichan, their
saint, in 1095, and S. Mary's Abbey founded by them pro-
bably about the same time, and where, just outside the north
boundary, they had granted lands to their foundation of the
Holy Trinity, Christ Church. Here they were hemmed in ;
for the victors not only confirmed S. Mary's and Christ
Church and enhanced them, but they founded Kilmainham
in the west, All Hallowes on the south-east bank, S. Thomas
and Donore, and S. Sepulchre to the south of the city. Ruth
for their rapine may have been their motive, but if there
was religion there certainly was policy, for they thus girdled
the Ostmen with a cordon of holy ground, bulwarks against
Ostmen within and Irish without, who had both now come
to regard these with more awe than fortress or stone walls.
Thus the rule and the tongue of the Northmen went into
oblivion within a generation, for they kept no chronicles,
which the Irish surely did.
They were not named Ostmen here merel}^ because their old
home is east of Ireland. The Irish called them Galls,
Strangers, Black Strangers, White Strangers, Danes.
There were tribes in Livonia, whom the Greeks called
Ostiones and the Latins Aestii, perhaps, because they lived
by the Eastern Baltic, perhaps from the cradle of the Goths
in farthest Orient. Ware's high authority attributes the
OXMANTOWN 21
name to these. At any rate the Norse were called Easter-
lings in England from very olden time.
So Ostmantown was founded. The name in its larger
sense covers all the north bank from Kilmainham bridge to
the sea within the chartered city bounds, for the Abbey in
the centre is that of St. Mary of Osmanbury, or town of
the Ostmans, and the city records apply the name to all the
north-east space behind and around the Abbey and its
meadows to the east where the Abbey streets now run, and
the whole north bank was the single parish of St. Michan's,
but we may generally confine the term to what lies between
the Park and the line of Capel and Bolton Streets. At the
restoration it had but one street from the old bridge known
as St. Michan's or Ostmantown Street running north to the
Broadstone, each side of this was chiefly waste, though
dotted with homesteads and some villas of notables. After
the Abbey was dissolved by Henry VIII., it passed to
Matthew King, Clerk of the Cheques of the Armies of Ireland,
in 1561, from whose family the lordship was bought by
Garret, first Viscount Moore of Drogheda, and the abbot's
house became the home of the Drogheda family. At the
restoration, Henry, first Earl, built a new mansion near
where St. Mary's Church now stands hard by the Abbey,
and its Little Green, still marked by Little Green Street,
and the Recorder's Court, brought thither in 1796, and thence
eastward the Drogheda estate spread to form, under Henry,
the third Earl, Henry Street, Moore Street, Drogheda Street
(changed to Sackville Street, when Duke of Dorset was Lord
Lieutenant), and Earl Street away to the north Strand.
Archbishop Bramhall had a mansion in Oxmantown at the
restoration, even before the Cromwellian magnates were
building villas here— Sir Theophilus Jones, brother of the
Bishop of Meath, Charles Coote, afterwards Lord Mountrath ;
and Clotworthy, Lord Massareene, Cromwellians ennobled
by Charles : and there were parks, enclosures, Phipoes Park,
Ancaster Park, ancient spaces but only half built on. In
the far west of the Ostman bounds was a triangular meadow
in the valley of the Liffey, its apex near the Island Bridge
22 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
of Kilmainham, with the river for its south side, the other
trending north-east along the slopes of the plateau, where
now rises the Wellington Column. Passing at the meadow
corner the Fountain of La Belle Isoult, our shadowy heroine
of Arthurian romance, fossilized in Chapelizod, the boundary
mounted the highland and crossed an angle of the present
Phoenix Park, into the ravine by the Military Hospital,
called of old the Gybbett's Slade from an ancient gallows on
Arbour Hill. Leaving this on the right it passed on through the
orchards and barns of Grangegorman, of Christ Church, and
thence north, and then east to the Tolka and the sea, whence
it turned back along strand and river to the Church of Our
Lady of Ostmaneby and the strete of Ostmantown, thus com-
pletely circling the Abbey. These borders were a little
fluctuous, for there were no maps ; they were preserved by
the city magnates in triennial jolliiication for centuries
known as " Ryding the Franchises." The Mayor and Re-
corder took horse with the Aldermen and Sheriffs and the
Swordbearer, and the Clerk armed with the Plantaganet
Charter, by which with a bush here and a stone there they
felt their way, halting now to take counsel and then for a
banquet, but at times for a dispute with the powers of
Kilmainham, or tlie Priors of Christ Church or S. Mary's.
The western triangle was Ellen Hore's meadow, so, named
in the " Rydings " of 1448 and 1603. Afterwards it was
owned by Sir William Parsons, who succeeded Strafford,
when sent to his doom, and who held many city acres through
Alderman Lang, the father of his wife. In his hands it is
said to be adjoining Ostmantown, and when, after the
Restoration, the Park was in formation, the Lord Lieutenant
Essex writes to the King, who was much interested in the
scheme, that a part of the new lands proposed to be enclosed
belongs to Sir Richard Parsons, the Lord Deputy's great
grandson, and cannot be purchased during his minority.
This minor became the first Baron Oxmantown and Viscount
Rosse, and when on failure of the line of the old Deputy, the
honours were renewed in that of his brother Lawrence,
both titles were conferred, and the present Earl of Rosse in
OXMANTOWN 23
his second title pi Lord Oxmaiitown alone represents
to-day the ancient Villa Osmanorum."
The highest ground east oftheGybbett Slade over Arbour
Hill is called in John's charter Knocknaganhoc^ the site of
a tale by Richard Stanihurst in liis Irish contribution to
Holinshed's Chronicle in 1577, and told with a humour
too quaint to abbreviate : — " In the the further end of the
Ostmantowne Greene is there a hole, commonl}^ called
Scaldbrother's Hole, a labj^rinth reaching two large miles
under the earth. This was in old tyme frequented by a
notorious thief named Scaldbrother, wherein he would hide
all the bag and baggage that he could pilfer. The varlet
was so swift on foot, as he has eftsoon outrun the swiftest
and lustiest young men in all Ostmantown maugre their heads
bearing a pot or pan of their's on his shoulders to his den.
And now and then in derision of such as pursued him, he
would take his course under the gallows which standeth very
nigh his cave, a fit sign for such an inne, and so being
shrouded within his lodge he reckoned himself cocksure,
none being found at that tyme so hardie as would venture
to entangle himself in so intricate a maze. But as the
pitcher that goeth often to the water cometh at length home
broken, so this lustie youth would not surcease from open
catching, forcible snatching, and privie prolling, till time he
was by certain gaping groomes that lay in wait for him inter-
cepted fleeing towards his couch, having on his apprehension
no more wrong doone him than that he was not sooner
hanged on that gallows, through which in his youth and
joUitie he was wont to run." In a little book^'* published
anonymously in 1845, it is said that even then when digging
^ After some research I have been unalile to find any other trace
of the Parsons in Oxmantown. I have tracked these boundaries on foot
and by comparison of the Charter of Prince John, 1 192, the very quaint
Ridings of the Franchises, 1488 and 1603, in Gilbert's Calendar, Vol. I.,
pp. 3, 190, 492, also the Inquisition of Richard II., and the modern
Perambulation, continued nearly to the passing of the Municipal Corpora-
tions Act, 1840, described in Warburton and Whitelaw's Hist, of Dublin,
Vol. I., p. 103. Lord Essex' Letter to Charles II., is amongst the Essex
papers printed for Camden Society, 1S90.
10 Note. — Oxmantown and its Environs, Dublin, 1843. It is by the
Rev. Nicholas Burton.
24 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
the foundation for houses in Oxmantown, they often came
upon Scaldbrother's Hole, that in Smithfield it is sometimes
made use of as vats by the brewers, and in Queen Street
some vaults of the houses are formed from it, and boys play-
ing on the hill have been known to fall up to their necks in
it where the ground is thin. The tradition still lives with
the usual variations, and the Blue Coat boys still have a
legend that caverns underlie their schoolroom.
From Arbour Hill the Ostman bounds crossed Stony-
batter. This, centuries before the Ostman came, had been
part of one of the five main roads — Slighs — of Erin, that
which reached from royal Tara to saintly Glendalough ; it
crossed the old Ford of Ath Cliath, passing into Fercullen
and the Dublin and Wicklow hills. It entered Dublin by
Cabra, and thus Boher-na-cloghan — the stony road—
Stonybatter, is one of the oldest streets of Europe. From
Stonybatter the boundary went on to the granaries of
Gormo, called in Prince John's charter, the Barnes of the
Holy Trinity. They were large and long lived, and seem to
have trespassed over the line ; for riding the bounds in
Henry VIL's time, the Mayor and his brothers met the
Prior of Christ Church, who was fain to admit the macebearer
by a ladder and a window into the barn, where was found on
the floor a stone which was the landmark between town
and prior, whence they went on east through the orchard
and so into Ostmantown Green. And when in the first
of James L the function recurred. Sir Henry Harrington,
who had been one of Elizabeth's magnates, was owner of the
barns and the manor house hard by, the calvacade went
straight for the stone in the " ould barne," and then to
another, when the Mayor ordered the swordbearer to thrust
the King's sword through a window, telling Sir Henry that
but they had made him lately free of the city, they had
broken a greater passadge. Sir Henry, however, was a states-
man, he made a banquet to the Mayor in the Manor Hall,
yet, when they had dined, the persistent guests passed the
sword through a hole in the south wall and then went on
through the orchard into the green. The manor came after
OXMANTOWN 25
to the family of John Stanley, sheriff in 1632, they held it
for two hundred years, and in one of the more modern ridings
some hundred and thirty years ago, the Lord Mayor and
suite passed, like their predecessors, through Colonel Stanley's
house. The name is preserved in the little Stanley Street
not far from the broadway of Manor Street, but an heiress
of the Stanley's, in 1663, became the wife of Henry Monck,
whose family ever since have been Stanley Moncks, and the
present amiable Viscount is lord of one half of the ancient
Grangegorman.
The manor house, however, came in time to the Sisters
of Charity. The site is now a Girl's Training School, managed
by the nuns, surrounded by high walls, but the writer, track-
ing the old bounds lately, was most kindly shewn over the
precincts by the Lady Superioress. Old things have passed
away, but a beautiful new chapel, designed by Mr. Ashlin,
has recenttybeen built, a truly architectual gem, like a pearl
in the shell, secluded from the world, where the barns of
Christ Church so long stood. But the orchard eastward,
where the city rulers rode through the ages, now a pro-
cession of Banquo's ghosts, has a special grace for us, for it
was one of the early gifts to our King's Hospital, devised
by a Mrs. Taylor, in 1686. Our rental still calls it the
Dean's Orchard, but that also is a lucus a non luccndo. It
bears the fine name of Fitzwilliam Place, a cul de sac to the
west of the wall of the Richmond Asylum.
Behind the manor stretched the sylvan land of Gormo,
known in middle ages as Grangegorman in Sylvis, and the
Wood of Salcuit, reaching from Ostmantown Green to the
hamlet of Phibsborough, called from the Anglo-Norman
Faipoes or Phipoes, vast grabbers of Ostman lands. There
is a fine tradition of these woods, which, for the honour
of our Hospital, so near, we fain were proveable, that
from these came the oak of the glorious roof of
Westminster Hall, invincible by time or worm, or as Hanmer
savs : — "No English spider webbeth or breedeth to this
day." II
'I Dalton's History of Co. Dub., 517.
26 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
There are legends all round. Gormo himself looms in
romantic chronicles, a mythical hero, an African prince,
who came from Spain and conquered Ireland, and then with
an Irish host, joining Hengist and Horsa, conquered England.
The myth is a manifest travestie of the Viking invasions of
both countries, the Paynim Moors taking the place of the
Paynim Northmen, and yet it was seriously used by Queen
Elizabeth's cunning lawyers as a support of her claims as
Queen of both islands in the rebellions of O'Neill as successor
of our Ostman of Grangegorman.
Another myth ^ 2 less traceable, connects us with Sherwood
Forest, telling how when Robin Hood's merry archers were
broken up, Little John, his First Lieutenant, drifted to Dublin.
Prayed by the natives to show his prowess, to their joy he
shot a shaft from the Bridge of Dublin to Arbour Hill, the
fame of which has been flying through the ages since. In
Elizabeth's time was still shown where " standeth in
Ostmantown Green, an hillock named Little John his Shot."
The legend says that being pursued by the English to eschew
dangers of the laws, he fled into Scotland. This is indeed
mythical : to avoid English law surely Ireland was his
sanctuary. More likely is the other legend that makes his
ending on the gallows by Gibbet Slade. But traces surer
than legend have lasted nearly till to-day, though doomed to
perish to-moriow. Very old records speak of the orchards of
Grangegorman ; between the Royal Barracks and North
Circular Road, was an open space known to very few, for
it was built all round, yet, four years ago it contained more
than twenty acres, which in the spring were rosy and radiant
with apple-blossoms, a paradise in this obsure corner of the
city. It has belonged to the Palmerston Temples and has
been now sold to the Artisan's Dwellings Company, and
already the golden groves have been sawn down to the earth
level ; but the circles of dark wood wreathed with shoots of
apple leaves could still be measured, and many were two feet
in diameter denoting for fruit trees, a growth of many
13 Gilbert's History of Dub., i, 341.
OXMANTOWN 27
centuries. The folk-lore of the neighbourhood holds them to
have been planted by the Danes. The workmen's homes
will prove a blessing, but it is a pity the red brick or gray
monotony should not be relieved by a few of these old
Ostmen, who renewed their youth each recurrent spring, and
kept venerable memories green. We were fortunate in
finding these reliquiae Danaum (forgive the word) before
they were doomed to oblivion.
The old Ostmantown street ran to the hamlet of
Glasmenogue and the Broadstone. Beyond the church, and
west of the strete, rises in the old records a tower. Young's
Castle, like a lighthouse over a vague sea, perhaps named
from Younge, Abbot of S. Mary's in 1467. East, west, and
north of this urban wedge, spread, as we have said, fields and
meadows, pastures arid orchards.
North of S. Michan's, and west of the street, was an
immemorial swamp, Loughboy, the Yellow Lake. It was
caused by the riveret Bradogue, which entering the suburbs,
as now where Grangegorman Lane joins the North Circular
Road, it coursed by the lane and under the site of the future
prison, thence to the Broadstone, where it probably accounts
for the glas, or watery ground, of Glasmenogue. Thence
it spread deviously down the slopes toward the river,
forming a marsh, which drained into the Pile, a narrow
estuary, long marked by Pill Lane, now Chancery Street,
filled in when the Ormond Quay and Market were formed by
the Duke. So late as 168 1 the city Militia could not march
to their parade on Ostmantown Green by reason of the swamp.
Then the Bradogue was forced into regular channels
running to the river, the main stream by Bolton, Halston
and Arran Streets ; another by Brunswick Street, then and
thence called Channel Lane. At the Restoration, when the
Cromwellian royalists were in the ascendant, Clotworthy, first
Lord Massereene, had a grant of Loughboy from the city
confirmed in fee farm to his widow, from whom it passed to
a great great great grandfather of the writer, whose
relatives now possess a part.
But the pride of the place was Ostmantown Green, the
28 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
great lung of the old city within the walls, all to it that the
Phoenix Park is to Dublin of to-day, and more ; its Champ
de Mars, the musterground of the civic and royal regiments
for parade, for pageant, or for war, in it Charles' Corona-
tion was proclaimed in 1660, and here was the great cattle
fair, its common of pasture, the rendezvous of civic
festivities, public and private. A lane passed through it by
the river from St. Michan's to the Gallows by the Slade,
known in the Middle Ages as Honkeman's, Hongman's,
Hangman's Lane, still cryptogrammed in Hamon's Lane to-
day. In Henry VIIL's time a law is passed that the market
of all quycke cattle shall be only in the green ; this meant
live bo vines, for sheep and poultry were sold in the city
market, and pigs were ever favourites in Dublin streets.
When after the Restoration the Green was enclosed, the old
usage was maintained, and Smithiield and the Haymarket,
ever since kept open, are now the sole remnants of the
olden Green. In Elizabeth's days there were angry com-
plaints to the Corporation that the cattle of foreigners
wTre trespassing on the Commons ; foreigners meant people
not free of the city, as the rest of the world were as
Barbarians to the Greeks, and orders were given to John
Usher, one of the worthies of the period, to see the Green
pastured by none but freemen, and that proportionable.
South of the Green was the river, which here strayed
westward in a wide reach, mudbanks on each side with a
double channel embracing a ^reat island, lizard shaped,
six acres in extent, which ran from the old bridge at Ath-
cliath to opposite the site of the royal barracks. This was
Usher's Island, which was afterwards merged in the
southern quays, but it still preserves memories that should
not be lost, of one of the worthiest of our Dublin names.
The Ushers were city magnates in Plantagenet times,
John Usher, Mayor in 1561, merits a niche even in the
Elizabethan Temple of Fame : statesman, philanthropist,
promoter of learning, he won the confidence of Lord
Burleigh and of Walsingham, and as one of the first who
pressed upon them the project of the Dublin University,
THE SOCIAL STATE OF DUBLIN 29
may be regarded as one of the founders of the College of
which his greater kinsman was one of the first fellows. By
him was published the first book e\'er printed in Irish type,
of which only one copy is supposed to exist. I t was th e
Church Catechism . Archbishop Adam Loftus writes to
Walsingham in London — " my only suite to your honour
is for the speedie return of Mr. Usher, the citie in these
times standeth in such need of him." He was Warden of
Oxmantown. His son. Sir William, followed in his steps,
published the first extant version of the New Testament
in Irish. The male line of this family failed, but from their
ladies descend the great Duke of Wellington, and the Dukes
of Leinster. But the name shall not die as long as learning
lives embalmed in the memory of the great Primate of
Armagh.
To the east of the Ostmantown or S. Michan's Street
rose by the river side on the site of the old monastery of '^ ^ i-"
S. Saviour's, " the Innes " not, however, to be used as tt^:. ,
tribunals till when one hundred and thirty five years later,
the Four Courts were thither removed from Christ Church,
much to the disgust of the city houseowners, to erect the
temple of British Justice in the centre of the homes of the
Dublin Danes.
IIL
THE SOCIAL STATE OE DUBLIN.
The poverty of the city was complicated and intense, the / /_ .
misery not merely of the poor, the precipitates of misfortune
or fault, who are always with us, but penury born of twenty
years of terrible unrest which had spread through all society
like a malaria. Dublin twice beleaguered and perpetually
harassed, conflict within, and war without, her suburbs
the scenes of many fights and of a desolating battlefield,
found her commerce prostrate, her provincial trade paral\'zed,
her capital, public and private, vanished away, unable now
to maintain her own natural population, much less the
forlorn who flocked to her recurrently from the chaos
FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
fltside. When the rebelhon burst hundreds of " poor
uistressed English," with their famihes, repaired to the city
"stript, denuded and destitute of everything. The Assembly
Rolls testify gratefully to the unparalleled humanity of
Ormonde at this time, though himself then a chief sufferer.
After the first ten years, in 1651, half the houses in the
city were destroyed, and Cromwell's Government were
obliged to import a colony of artizans from England
to rebuild. Numbers of houses were derelict, and the
records are replete with petitions of the city lessees
to be forgiven their rents or allowed to surrender ; as they
could not get a shilling from the occupiers. One of these
is Francis Aungier, first Lord Longford, who owned the
quarter in which ran the street still called by his name.
In 1657 Lord Mayor Tighe, who had been sent as repre-
sentative to Oliver's last Parliament, is clamouring for
the unpaid iTioo granted him by the city, but the salaries
of the humbler city officers were left unpaid, and in the
year of the restoration there is a plaint from all the city
beadles, that they have had nothing for ten months, and are
starving. The rebellion was, no doubt, chargeable with these
calamities, but the retribution was terrible indeed.
For the Restoration at first only enhanced the trouble,
when many thousands were looking to it as to a millennium,
and motley throngs were crowding to the Courts of Clairns,
which would have needed such miraculous power as fed the
■ five thousand to satisfy all. The Commissioners might
have envied the lot even of the Land Commissions of our
dav, for their problem was a Gordian knot, which time
only could unravel when the threads were out-worn. The
position was something thus : —
The Cromwellian settlers were in possession viva manu
of thousands and thousand of acres in the three nearer
provinces assigned them, nominally for their arrears of
pay, and they thus claimed by double title of conquest and
purchase ; many of them had resold, and the vendees
thus had a further title by purchase. But the confiscated
owners, whether exiled to Connaught or wandering at large.
THE SOCIAL STATE OF DUBLIN 31
were not merely rebel Irishry ; they comprised the lealest
and noblest of the Royalists, such as Ormonde himself,
his titled cousins, and Clanricarde, who were penalized
by the Protector as delinquent. These, of course, must
be restored. Then there were the Confederate Catholic
lords and leaders, who, when the king was doomed, made
p eace with Ormonde in 1648, under articles providing for
their restoration when the monarchy should be restored.
These are known as the A rticle Men. Then there were the
hundreds, women, children, lunatics, who could not have
rebelled, and the relatives of rebel leaders entitled in re-
mainder who had not taken arms, and then there were the
Ensignmen, rebel warriors at first, who, allowed by Oliver to
emigrate as soldiers of fortune, had joined Charles in his exile,
and fought under his nominal ensigns in the low countries
for France and against France, for Spain and against Spain,
according to the shifting interests of our fugitive Prince.
Many had served for years in battalions personally com-
manded by James himself, and several had become adherents
of the phantom Court of Charles at Breda, and were
thus more Royalist than the Royalists themselves. Beside
these were a select^ list nominated by the king for favour
and restitution. All were included in his Gracious
Declaration of November, 1660, and were in high hope.
But restitution could only be at the expense of the
Crom^ellian settlers, and these were many-hued also.
The re gicide s, of course, were outside mercy, and Cook,
who as Solicitor General, had prosecuted the king in West-
minster Hall, and had been made Lord Chief Justice in
Ireland, Miles Corbett, who had been assigned the Castle
of the Talbots of Malahide, and named Lord Chief Baron,
and Colonel Axtell, Commandant of the halberdiers at the
King's execution, who had been rewarded with the Kilkenny
estates of the Butlers, were carried to London to be hanged,
drawn and quartered at Tyburn. But the moderates who
had worked with Henry Cromwell had joined in the recall
of Charles on the express terms that their estates should be
confirmed, and they now posed as the King's best friends.
J^V>v
32 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Then there were the old Royalist families; settlers under
James I. and Elizabeth, who had gone over to the Common-
wealth when it prevailed, such as Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill,
son of the first Earl of Cork ; he joined Cromwell in person
on his coming to Ireland, and had Lord Muskerry's Manor
of Blarney, for his guerdon ; and Sir Charles Coote, Chief
Commissioner of Cromwell's plantation, now rewarded with
a Galway estate of the Clanricardes, and Gormanstown Castle
in Co. Dublin ; such as Dr. Henry Jones, bishop of Clogher,
and his brother, Colonel Theophilus, sons of the old
centenarian bishop of Killaloe. Bishop Henry had con-
sented to replace the Prayer Book with the Presbyterian
Directory. He became Oliver's Scout-master General,
and acted as herald of the engagement to the government
as then established, without King or House of Lords, and
his prize was Lynch's Knock, or Summerhill, near Trim,
lately famous as the hunting lodge of the beautiful ill-
starred Empress of Austria. Sir Theophilus, with Sir
Charles Coote, had acted as Commissioners for punishing
any who should promote the interests of Charles Stuart.
He got the Sarsfield demesne at Lucan for his pains.
But there are " Vicars of Bray " whose government never
goes out. Seeing how the cat jumped in 1659, Broghill, Coote
and Sir Theophilus Jones seized Dublin Castle in December,
and summoned a convention of the estates in February,
1660, to the Four Courts in Christchurch Place. They
declared, like Monk, for an open Parliament, and treated
personally with Charles for restoration on the terms of
confirming their estates. Now they were seeking, not
merely confirmation, but rewards, seats on the Privy
Council, new dignities and ennoblement, and they got them
mostly. Henry Jones was made Bishop of Meath, Sir
Charles Coote Earl of Mountrath, Theophilus was sworn
of the Privy Council, and behind these Cromwellians, noble
and ignoble, were " Oliver's dogs," most formidable of all —
Ironsides, who had not forgotten the use of pike and musket,,
and who were not to be displaced, but " that they would
have a knock for it first." They were furious when they
THE SOCIAL STATE OF DUBLIN. 33
learned that any Irishry, new Royalist or Innocents, held
the letters of the king. As to the Remainder Men, they said
" they would know how to cut off their tayles." If a Crom-
wellian must be dispossessed, he must, at least, have reprisal
out of the Connaught lands to be vacated by the return of
the exiles or otherwise somehow.
Verily a motley flock, plaintiffs and defendants, thronging
to the Courts of Claims.
Of these, there were three. The first, of thirty-six
Commissioners, sat from March 1661, for nearly a year ;
their work was ratified by the Act of Settlement of 1662.
But they chiefly represented the Royalist and Royalist
Cromwellians, who were now dominant, and did little for
anyone else, so by Ormonde's influence they were super-
seded, and a new court of five gentlemen sat in September
1662, to further consider the claims of the Innocents,
Article, and Ensign men.
But there were more than eight thousand of these,
and when many claims had been acknowledged, there were
no lands available to meet the multitudinous residue, so the
court was obliged to declare a closure after a twelve-months'
sitting, and they did not re-open until 1666 to administer
the Act of Explanation of 1665, the supplement of the
settlement of three years before. Meanwhile the city
swarmed with piteous crowds. These were not the claimants
merely, but their wives and families, and their retainers,
for, as Thackeray says, " there is never an Irishman so
wretched, but he has some more wretched dependent
hanging upon him." When Ormonde came back as
Lord Lieutenant in July, 1662, he found the country
" as divided and unsettled as is or ever was in Christendom."
When the first Court was sitting, in 1661, Lord Chancellor
Eustace writes to Ormonde of the unrestored Innocents,
" our streets be full of those miserable creatures of all
sorts, noble as well as of inferior degree." When the
Law Courts opened next year, there were scenes fit for
Lucian or Dante to imagine, tattered nobles and officers
scarred and sunburnt, with buff coats patched, jack-boots
D
34 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL.
and Bilboa blade, and broken-hearted followers around
them, heart-sick with hope deferred ; and so on for the
miserable years, till for too many hope was dead.
Bourke, Baron of Castleconnel-on-Shannon, had fought
under Ormonde, his relative, against Cromwell in 1650,
and afterwards for five years trailed a pike in James's
regiment in the Netherlands. As an Ensignman, he
petitioned the king in 1662, stating he was in debt for food,
raiment, and " unable to subsist if your Majestie relieve me
not ; " five years afterwards, he tells Ormonde, who had
at last procured him a pension, that he had been forced to
pawn his very clothes for twenty pounds to bring him out of
Dublin, and was unable to appear for want of dress, " my
wife and children ready to forsake house and home, and
the little stock I had being taken for rent." MacCarthy
Reagh of Bandon, connected by marriage with Ormonde,
was a married Ensignman. He writes in 1665 to the Duke,
that he, his wife, and seven children, had been forced for
want of a home to come to Dublin ; where they had not a
penny or penny's worth to relieve them, and in a condition
ready to perish with starving, with no other subsistence,
but wandering from house to house, looking for bread."
The O'Dempsey, Viscount Clanmalier, of the Queen and
King's Counties, had fought as a rebel, but was amongst
the Aoiicle Men ; he had been imprisoned by the Cromwell
Government five years in Dublin, and so could not join
the Ensigns abroad. He had nothing now to live on, but
his claim was abortive, for his great estates had passed to
Bennett, afterwards Lord Arlington of the Cabal, who
formed the Queen's County lands into the Manor of
Portarlington, for his distinguished self. Andrew Tuite,
Lord of Cullanmore Castle, Westmeath, a Confederate chief,
who had been imprisoned by the opposite Irish faction of
the Nuncio, was reinstated at the Restoration by the king's
letter, but, dying soon after, his son Walter was dispossessed
by a Cromwellian claiming under the Act of Settlement. In
1666 his petition states he had been in Dublin twelve
months with not sixpence for six months to relieve him ;
THE SOCIAL STATE OF DUBLIN. 35
two of his sons in the city, who from cold and want, had
sickened to the point of death, whilst his mother, daughter,
and two other sons were the Lord knows where, having not
a bit to put in their mouths.
These were magnates. There was no land to reprize them;
how was it with the starving others ?
Charles and Ormonde have incurred the obloquy of
ingratitude and breach of the promises which they were
really anxious to fulfil, but the truth is this would have
needed another Ireland, and a new army ; for sejfishness
and tapacity were rampant. A general displacement of
the Cromwellians would indubitably have evoked another
Civil War ; as it was they projected one, and a plot to seize
Ormonde and Dublin Castle, and to restore the Covenant
was only suppressed by the hanging of Colonel Alexander
Jephson and his co-conspirators. In several instances
restored Innocents were evicted by forcible entry, and the
ejectors could never be displaced. It was hoped that the
estates of the regicides and of some noted rebels still un-
punished, might have proved large assets for redistribution,
but to secure Court influence, the Cromwellian faction had
the regicides' lands assigned to James of York, w4io, it was
hoped, would have served his old comrades out of these,
but he for whom they had bled, for whom, as king, the Irish
afterwards staked their all, would not surrender an acre,
and when five thousand acres of Oliver's own assignment
in Meath were resettled on a Royalist, he claimed to be
recouped elsewhere. Henry Cromwell had been so moderate,
so generously kind, to the Duchess of Ormonde, that he was
permitted to sell his great estate in Tipperary, and the
purchasers were confirmed. So with many another expected
reprisal.
So Dublin was filled with a ruined rabble of famished
strangers, and natives little better off. This was the
misery that led to the Letter of Lord Ossory, that led to ^
the founding of the King's Hospital.
FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL.
CHAPTER II.
THE FREE SCHOOL OF DUBLIN.
King's Hospital was a rebirth or continuation of the old
Free School of Dublin, which is thus a part of our storv,
and one which throws odd light and shade on the educa-
tional and financial conditions of the Caroline age, which
might cause wonder to the Commissioners of Education and
the School Committees of our time.
A lanelet still tumbles down the hill of Dublin, from High
Street to Cook Street, like a turbid brook ; there is a mound
at one side of ruined masonry, the stones are the fossils of
the old "Free Schole of the Cittie," this street was Rame
Lane in the middle ages, it is called Schoolhouse Lane
still, though the School ceased there so very many years
ago. I The City Assembly Rolls in the reign of Henry VIII. ,
and for a century after, have entries giving the names of the
masters appointed by the Corporation and their salaries,
these range from £20 Enghsh to /lo Irish, with the duty of
teaching twenty children of freemen, and the rights of
receiving from the parents from three shillings to eighteen
pence a quarter, for each child ; for anything beyond this
they were referred to " the curtesies of the parentes according
to their dysposycions ; " they might, however, take pupils
from the country for whatever they could get. They had
residence in the garrets, over the big draughty School room,
which would seem to have been held by the Corporation
under covenant, to be kept continually out of repair, for
there is an enquiry into the ruins of the free School house
in__i6^i5, and the complaints of the successive masters are
piteous and recurrent. Yet these teachers were no hedge
1 Gilb. Cal, 2, 438.
THE FREE SCHOOL OF DUBLIN. 37
schoolmasters, nor were the pupils mere charity boys. The
master was to " teach the children of the free citizens in
humanytie, and others the liberal Sciences and frealtyes,"
and he did it, at least sometimes.
In 1588, the year after Mary Stuart's death, two Scotch-
men, James Fullerton and James Hamilton, came here as
secret emissaries on behalf of her son, James VL, to pro-
mote his succession to the English crown. But the king
could not support them, and so Fullerton became master
of the City School and Hamilton assisted there ; clever
Scotchmen can live on little.
When James became King of England, both had large
grants of forfeited estates in Ireland. Hamilton was made
Lord Clandeboye, his teeming posterity includes Lord
Dufferin, Lord Holmpatrick, and the Hamilton Rowan
family. Fullerton was knighted, became first gentleman of
the Royal bedchamber, and was buried in Westminster
Abbey.
But they had a pupil far greater than themselves,
in that year, 1588, a little boy of eight years, James Usher,
entered the School and remained there five years, and there
was laid the basis, as the great Primate often acknowledged,
of a learning perhaps the vastest and deepest of his day.
He too lies in the great Abbey, not far from his old master
of the Dublin Free School.
Poor as was the pittance, the office was deemed of great
public importance, for, in 1642, Thomas Coffie is recommended
as master by both houses of Parliament, yet, shortly after he
complains that the slating of the roof is off. And the pittance
was often in arrear. Even Fullerton had to petition " for £26
being dewe unto him as well for his stipent as his dyet,"
at last in 165 1, at the close of Oliver's Conquest, the City
couldn't even promise to pay anything, and appointed John
Carr on the express terms that he was to have no salary
beyond what he might get from the parents. We hear no
more of him, and may hope he didn't starve ; the school did.
So the new regime took up the question magniloquently "1
enough at least. After electing their new Mayor, the
38 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL.
Assembly, in October, 1660, passed a law that the
Reverend William Hill, Doctor of Divinity, shall
have the place of Schoolmaster of the Cittie, and
that the Mayors and Sheriffs be visitors, who, once
a year or oftener as they see cause, shall see the said
School well ordered and governed. At £15 a year, he was to
teach twenty poor freemen's children to be nominated by
the Mayor, for eighteen pence per child, per quarter, and
other men's children as he can agree. The Dominie does
not seem to have had a good time of it.
In the May following he is asking the Corporation to lay
down a course for the speedy reparation of the roof ; they
ordered the Masters of the City Works to repair it, to be
paid on the warrant of the Mayor, but though the warrant
went the Treasurer had no money, and the poor Doctor
was forced to spend £25 himself to make the place a con-
venient habitation for himself and family. It is not strange,
therefore, that in 1664 he resigned, accepting a prebend's
stall in St. Patrick's, glad, we presume, to be put back into
the priest's office that he might eat a piece of bread. Yet,
Dr. Hill, too, had an illustrious pupil. In 1662 Sir
Winston Churchill was in Dublin as one of the Commissioners
of the Court of Claims. His eldest son, John, was a boy of
twelve, and was placed suh ferula of the Free School
here. Hill was the Helicon at which the great Duke of
Marlborough took his early draughts, and here was taught
the hand that wrote the despatches of Blenheim and Ramilies.
It is curious to think of this boy and of what he was think-
ing as he plodded daily by Christ Church and the precints
of the now Synod Hall. His enemies in his greatness said he
couldn't spell, and possibly this School is responsible, for
Dr. Hill seemingly spells " School " and " repair " with
final " ees," and " especially " and " speedy " end in " ie,"
but, as Lord Wolseley justly says, orthography was then
fluctuous ; it was Addison and Steele, Swift and Pope that
fixed the standard, and even with Swift, '• asparagus " is
" sparrowgrass." At any rate, Marlborough shares this blame
with Napoleon and Wellington.
THE FREE SCHOOL OF DUBLIN.
39
Hill was starved out, but a place in Dublin is never vacant
without many clamouring to fill it. The hint of Hill's
resigning brought many rivals into the field. Mr. Fletcher
was the fortunate candidate, his scholarship being approved
by Primate Margetson, and in the grand language of the
rolls, he was "" invested in the said Free School and the
Salary thereto belonging," which sounds queorly with the
arrears due Dr. Hill still left unpaid. Fletcher fared no
better than Hill, he is soon bleating over the repairs. " There
is," he says, " a Schoolroom and a large fay re room over it,
but the latter has no chimney, and it would be very con-
venient if the chimney should be built, which would not be
very chargeable, for the tender children frequently made their
address in cold weather in a strait little kitchen, scarce suitable
for his own family." - There is pathos in that plea of the little
strait kitchen sufficient for his own family, though scarcely so.
He seems to have come to grief, for in 1668 there was a
petition for the appointment of Matthew Spring, M.A.,
founded on reasons " therein set forth," but which do not
appear in the rolls ; on this the grant to Fletcher was declared
to be void, and Spring reigned in his stead, the Assembly
ordering that the School should henceforth be visited by the
Mayor and Sheriffs twice in the year, in June and September,
instead of once as in Hill's time. But Spring, too, seems
to have been a failure. Very shortly after his appointment,
there is a rather angry order by the Assembly that no usher
whatever be placed in the Free School under Matthew
Spring, without the authority of the City, and in 1671 he was
discharged. For the Corporation had meanwhile taken up
the education question in real earnest. Early in that year they
commissioned the Lord Mayor, Sir W. Davys, the Recorder,
and the Sheriffs to confer with Lord Berkeley, the Lord
Lieutenant, and the Lord Chancellor for establishing and
regulating such a Free School as the Assembly desired.
These gentlemen reported chat His Excellency and the
Chancellor were most desirous of the same, and would
recommend that some dignity should be conferred on some
- Gilb. Cal., 4, 522.
40 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL.
able Schoolmaster, and allow out of his revenue four score
pounds for his support, and assign for the Schoolhouse the
great house in Back Lane, called the Hospital, then in his
hands, which, however, would cost £400 to repair. The
report was ratified, the Dean of Christ Church, Dr. Parry,
' lp-i1 ■ who became Bishop of Ossory in the following year7~waS
appointed under the city seal, to contract with a School-
master in England, and the Lord Lieutenant applied to the
King for letters patent for a new Free School. Poor
Matthew Spring was discharged, and the old School in Rame
Lane was closed and for ever.
The King's letter followed to Lord Berkeley in May ; it
dates from Whitehall, and recites : " We are given to under-
stand there is an extraordinary want of a good Schole in
Dublin, the metropolis of our Kingdom of Ireland, by reason
whereof our loving subjects of all ranks and conditions
inhabiting in our sayd city and other places of that King-
dome are forced for the education of their children to send
them to remote parts, and sometimes beyond the seas from
their own oversight not only to the great hasard of their
lives and health, but of having their youth corrupted with
evil principles in religion by persons who may take advantage
with their learning to instil erroneous, dangerous and
destructive opinions." It then states the King's pleasure in
conformity with the advice of Dr. Michael Boyle, Lord
Archbishop of Dublin, and the Lord Mayor of our said city
that there be for ever a Free Grammar School in the city,
with fit and able Schoolmasters to be approved from time
to time by the Lord Archbishop and Lord Mayor. To
augment the Corporation grants and to insure masters " in
a more than ordinary measure qualified for instructing
youth after the best manner in School learning," the advow-
son of the first of the three dignities, Chanter, Chancellor, or
Treasurer, of Christ Church which shall be vacant is to be
settled for ever so that the Master from time to time, and no
other, shall be incumbent. The Hospital in Back Lane,
called Kildare House, for whicli it is stated the King pays
£12 yearly to the Dean and Chapter, is allocated for the
EDWARD WETTENHALL,
First designate Chaplain of tlie Blue Coat.
Bishop of Cork, 1678; Kilmore, 1699,
Obiit, 1714; ^t., 78.
From an Original Picture b\' Vander Vaert.
Liuitton : Piiblisticci by S. Woodbnrn. 1S13.
[To fat-e page 41
THE FREE SCHOOL OF DUBLIN. 41
SchooL Pending a vacancy in one of the dignities, the King
will allow £80 a year for the chief Schoolmaster out of the
Irish Exchequer. The Archbishop, Lord Mayor, Deans of
Christ Church and St. Patrick's and the Provost of Trinity
College for the time being, are made visitors, and Letters
Patent are directed to issue.
Dean Parry went to England and secured a first-class man.
This was the Rev. Edward W etten hall, resident Canon of
Exeter. He had been a pupil of that ideal swishtail. Dr.
Busby, of Westminster School, thence he entered Trinity,
Cambridge, but passing to Lincoln, Oxon, graduated B.D,
there in 1669. He was a fine scholar, author of Wettenhall's
Greek Grammar, which with Dorey's Prosody, and the
Latin Delectus, held its place in English and Irish Schools for
mor% than a century and a half. Resigning everything in
England, he came here in 1672, with his family and an
assistant Master, Walter Neale, to whom he was himself to
pay £50 a year. But there w^as no School for him, nothing
in the city coffers to pay his £80 salary, much less to trans-
form Kildare Hall, or provide for the pupils. The
Corporation, furthermore, were then building our Hospital
and Free School, as we shall presently see, and had not
enough for that. They were, however, ashamed of them-
selves and the Assembly in June considering it would tend
much* to the loss and dishonour of the city if the master
should be forced to turn into England again, ordered
accommodation for the master and scholars to be provided
in the new Hospital, if the Lord Lieutenant's consent should
be obtained. Wettenhall must, therefore, be regarded as
dejure our first Headmaster. But our Hospital wasn't ready,
so meanwhile, he hi red rooms himself, at £20 a year, where
with Walter Neale " he^Jtaught School in the City in as
publique manner as he could," as he tells in his petition in
January, 1674, wherein he plaintively sets forth his wrongs,
and prays for his arrears of salary, and that steps may be
taken to give him a house and school somewhere. The
Assembly ordered his arrears to be paid, and referred his
petition to the Sub-Governors of our Blue Coat, of whom
42 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL.
anon, and paid his rent out of the revenue of the City
waters. In this year our Hospital was approaching com-
pletion, but theie was no room for him yet. His petitions
were entered in the Journal of the Blue Coat Governors ; but
Dublin could not afford two Free Schools, and he must
wait for another year. He had held his ground, working
like a man, and thinking while he taught in his temporary
lodging, yet earning high repute as clergyman and scholar.
But only a few months before our building was about to
open and ready to receive him, he preached a famous
sermon in Christ Church called " Collyrion " at a time when
he needed a heart salve himself. And the King, as he told
the City, kept his promise to him, for he was now installed
Precentor of Christ Church in 1675, and Prebendary of
Castleknock in St. Patrick's, and in 1679 with iiigh
acclaim became Bishop of Cork, eight Prelates taking part
in the Consecration, the Primate Margetson, Archbishop
Boyle, the Bishops of Meath, , Kildare, Raphoe, Killaloe,
and Dr. John Parry, his sponsor, now Bishop of Ossory. In
1699 he was translated to Kilmore. In both positions
eminent, he rebuilt at Cork the old Bishop's Court, which he
used as his palace ; at Kilmore he built the Episcopal House
at the west end of the Church, and began the restoration
of the ruined Cathedral of St. Patrick at Ardagh. He
died in 1713, full of honours, and lies in' Westminster Abbey.
Brave old City Free School, three of your memories amongst
the ashes of the great. 3
The collapse of the Free School was, in truth, because
the City had in mind the combination of an Hospital with
the School, to maintain wnich separately was utterly beyond
their means, nor could they have attempted either, but for
the allotment of Stephen's and Oxmantown Greens, a
further breach of Strafford's ordinance, yet, one of vital and
lasting moment to our Hospital, for it gave us a home and a
^ This account of the Free School and Dr. Wettenhall is drawn from
Gilbert's Calendar, \'ols. IV. and V. ; his History of Dublin, Vol. I. Sir
James Ware's Irish Bishops ; the Minute Books of King's Hospital.
Lord Wolseley's Life of Marlborough, and Elrington's Life of Usher have
been consulted.
6/;n/^'i/. J/i/',/V.,^AV6:v/A.s/y/;;AAA7:i//;. , .s- ^n-riiEXsCRKKX.
St. Stephen's Green, as allotted in 1664
(The adjoining Streets were inserted in the Map many years afterwardsV
[To face page Vi
THE FREE SCHOOL OF DUBLIN. 43
permanent endowment. In 1663 the Assembly, reciting
that '' by the late rebellion and long continued troubles of
this Kingdom, the treasury of this Cittie is cleerly exhausted," 4
resolved that by letting the outskirts of S. Stephen's Green
and other waste lands, a considerable rent may be reserved.
In the next year they had these skirts laid out in parcels,
for which lots were drawn by the City IVIagnates themselves
and other Notables, whose names appear in the Assembly
Rolls. It may seem a mighty job, but the Corporation in
fact had no money to build on, or even to enclose the wastes.
Each allottee was to pay one penny per foot on three sides
of the green, and one halfpenny on the south, or country
side, and fines of ten shillings for each shilling of the ground
rents. All were given grants in perpetuity, but each was
bound to erect his portion of the boundary wall opposite his
lot, and to plant six sycamore trees alongside. Next year
Oxmantown Green was similarly dealt with, the allottees
paying forty shillings tine and twenty as head rent, but in
the lists we find Nos. 88 and 89 marked " Free School,"
showing what was in mind even then. 5 The space for the
great market, now Smithfield, is also reserved and the
residue of the green, at the instance of the Duke of Ormonde,
was levelled as an exercise ground for his new regiment of
Irish Guards, and the City Militia, after the City, who had
nothing but waste lands, had presented to the Duke himself
seven Irish acres. The feeling of gratitude towards him was
intense, and the city wished him to have a palace and to live
in Dublin. These acres are just to the west of the present
Blue Coat playground, on the site of the Royal Barracks,
erected in 1706 ; for the Duke's calls to London, and his
son Ossory's death, prevented his building here, and the
second Duke's life was chiefly in England.
The maps of the allotments which we insert may be of
interest to some of the present residents, as they certainly
are to the King's Hospital, part of whose title deeds they
are, though, as with many Irish landlords, our rents are small.
"The skirts" of Stephen's Green thus allotted, amounted
* Gilb. Cal,, 4-256, 271, 299. ^ Gilb. Cal., 4, 358.
44 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL.
to seventeen Irish acres, from which the aspect of the
original expanse may be partially realized.
The outsider allottees in Oxmantown were more numerous
in Oxmantown than in Stephen's Green, because Oxman-
town was then becoming the fashionable West-end. Lots
there were drawTi by Lords Dungannon and ^lassareene,
Chief Baron Bysse, who, as an old recorder, had asked leave
to draw. Sir Hercules Langford, ancestor of the Rowleys,
Lords Langford, and Warner Westenra, ancestor of the
Lords Rossmore. He was then a member of the Corporation.
> >/:.\/:/,:ii. ( /rri,i.\i-: Mai- ,.■///.„■. t
■■J //.,<: / '/■/>////(// /,t'/..Y nj' ( JXM.l.X J <j/i:\' .
/■'■
Oxmantown Green, as allotted in 1665
[To face page 44
[ 4S ]
CHAPTER III.
TEMP. CHARLES II., 1668-1675, TO THE OPENING OF
THE SCHOOL IN QUEEN STREET.
Our Hospital bears the name of Charles II., but we may
claim a purer eponymus than he, for its originating impulse
came from one of the very noblest soldiers and statesmen of
that not very noble age ; one of the choice spirits who rescue
it from the shame of ignobility, Thomas, Lord Ossory, the
Duke of Ormonde's eldest son, the darling, not only of courts
but of nations, of navies, as well as armies. Paladin sans
pcur at sans reprochc, Laudatus a laudato, his epitaph is
written by John Evelyn — himself perhaps the worthiest of
English worthies of his time, in a page which even now can
hardly be read without emotion : — " No one more brave
more modest ; none more humble, sober, and every way
virtuous. Unhappy England in this illustrious person's
loss ; universal was the mourning for him, and the eulogies
on him. I stood night and day by his bedside to his last
gasp, to close his dear eyes."^ He is imm.ortalized by Drydcn
in Abso/om and Achitophc/, as one of the handful of states-
men who redeemed the times, and,deploring his early loss, he
sings : —
" Yet not before the goal of honour won,
All parts fulfilled of subject and of son.
Swift was the race, but short the time to run."
Swift, writing to Pope fifty years afterwards, says:- — "" The old
Duke used to sav he would not change his dead son Ossory
for the best living son in Europe." In 1668 he was in Dublin,
Deputy for his father, then Lord Lieutenant. Struck w'th
^ Diary, August, 1680. 2 Correspondence. 1735.
46 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL.
the dearth and misery in the city, partially depicted in
Chapter I., he wrote on 8 February to the Corporation calling
attention to the numbers of strangers who had crowded into
the cit^^increasing the destitution of the native citizens, and
suggesting that steps should be taken to banish the strange
beggars, and to make provision for the poor who were
entitled to be maintained in it. This letter, nearh^ a century
afterwards, is styled by Charles Lucas as the laying of the
first stone of the Blue Coat School. The Corporation
responded with enthusiam. In the assembly of March, the
subject was debated on a petition setting forth that for want
of an hospital for the poor and aged men and women, and
for the fatherless and motherless children without friends
or estates to live on, the city is much annoyed with beggars,
to its discredit and dishonour. It was stated that -{200 was
already placed in the hands of Alderman Mark Ouin, Lord
Mayor of the year before, and now City Treasurer, by a
person who desires that the needful work should go on. A
ver}^ strong committee was thereon appointed, consisting of
the Lord MayorTSheriffs, all the Aldermen, and forty-eight
of the Commons, to select a site for the hospital, "appoint
overseers, collect subscriptions, do all other matters for the
speedy carrying on of the said good work, and to report to
Lord Ossory and the Council, as also to the next Assembly.
The committee was empowered to consider how orphan's
propertv could be secured as in London, and they were to
act under the advice of Sir Wm. Davys, the Recorder.
Ossory's government ceasing with his father's in 1669, the
Corporation presented him with the freedom of the city " as
a monument of their gratitude and affection." In acknowledg-
ment he writes : — " The beginning of my life, if infancy can
be so called, was within your jurisdiction, and my first
entrance into public emploj^ment was the care of that king-
dom of which your own is the first and most considerable. I
shall ever be to the city of Dublin a most faithful citizen and
affectionate servant."
The Committee worked with a will ; their first mandate
was for an hospital, but they contemplated with this to
TEMP. CHARLES II., 1668-1675. 47
combine a great city school as part of the project, and as
they were of the whole House they had a free hand. They
immediately selected as the site the Lots 87 and 88 on Oxman-
town Green, which had been left unallotted in 1665, and
then marked in the Maps as for the Free School, and without
waiting for any report they began to work on this site on the
28 MAY, 1669, which may be regarded as the birthday of
King's Hospital, for the first report to the Assembly of
January, 1670, states that on that day " the pious work
first began." This report gives a full account of the steps
already taken, with lists of subscribers and of subscriptions,
amounting to more than ri,ioo, which it asks to be made a
record of the cit}^ " whereby a lasting memory may be perpetu-
ated of the present benefactors, which will be an encourage-
ment to others to follow their good example." The Committee,
asking that their past dealing may be preserved from calumny,
which, through ignorance, may be cast upon them, prays"]
that a Charter be procured from the Crown conformable to
that of Christ's Hospital in London, and that as an endow-
ment the headrents of the lots in Oxmantown and St. '
Stephen's Green may be leased in trust for the Hospital for
ever. 3
The Assembly at once declared their good acceptance of
the diligence and faithful actings of the Committee in
carrying the good work so far forward through God's bless-
ing, beyond expectation, and ordered the lists of benefactors
to be recorded. An instrument prepared by Davys, the
Recorder, was executed, conveying the headrents of both the
Greens to feoffees to be nam.ed in the Royal Charter, wliich
the City was at once to apply for, and the rents were ordered
to be payable from the preceding Michaelmas.
Our founders were evidently in earnest, for the actual
grant from the Corporation bears on it the very date of this
Assembly, January, 1670. It is made to Alderman Richard
Tighe and others, as trustees for the King's Hospital, and
conveys" all the headrents oTthe 99 lots in Oxmantown, and
the 89 lots in St. Stephen's Green, to hold in perpetuity.
^ Gilbert's Calendar. 4-485.
-i
[8 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL.
/The primary list of subscribers was entered, as directed, in
the Assembly rolls, and is printed in full in Sir John Gilbert's
Records A There are in all eighty-one donors. It has a column
of annual endowments, tottiiTgT;o £§2 iosT? and a second for
the money gifts. This latter does not include the /200, the
primary subscription placed in Mark Quin's hands ; this
had been already invested at ten per cent, and appears in
the first column as /20 a year ; in our own records it heads
our endowments as granted b3' " a person of quaUty who
would be nameless," and who in all probability was Lord
Ossory himself, for there is no other gift from him. His father
the Duke gave £100 a year for several years, and Quin gave
personally £100 and an annuity of f,'^ a year. Davys, the
Recorder, and Aldermen Smith, Preston and Lewis Desmy-
nieres gave their allotments in Oxmantown Green, six in all,
in fee-simple, towards the perpetual endowment, but these,
being still waste, yielded no present revenue. The general
subscribers were chiefly aldermen and merchants, but Sir
Edward Smith, Chief Justice of Conmion Pleas, subscribed
£50, and Sir Henry Tichbourne £70. He was grandson of
"Sir ITenry, one of the four sons of Sir William Tichbourne of
Tichbourne, Hampshire, ancestoi of the lost young Sir Roger,
was personated by the base claimaat Orson in the great
Cause Celebre of thirty-six years ago. Sir William on the
death of Elizabeth, as High Sheriff of Hampshire, had
proclaimed James L, and the grateful King knighted all his
four sons. Of these Sir Henry settled in Ireland, his grandson,
our benefactor, was afterwards created Lord Ferrard. By the
beginning of 1670 £1,200 had been spent on the building. The
start was good, but the work begun in May, 1669 was not
completed till May, 1675. The delay was not due merely to
want of funds or size of the building, but in much to a civic
conPiict, which paralysed the Corporation, our governors, for
more than two years ; it therefore becomes part of our
history, and whilst the Hospital is being built we venture to
recall it.
^ Gilbert's Calendar, 4-49.2.
TEMP. CHARLES II., 1668- 1675 49
E.xpuLsiON OF Early Founders.
The commotion here was a vibration of the chords of
court intrigue in London. In 1669 James, the King's brother,
had secretly clianged his religion, and Charles, inclining to
follow him, but wavering to risk his crown for his creed, had
imparted liis doubts to his sympathisers in the Cabal, which
was then in power. With them he was breaking off the
Uutcli alliance, and joining Louis XIV. as his pensionary m
his war for the conquest of the Low Countries. Pursuing the
policy of superseding the Duke of Ormonde here. Lord
Berkeley of Stratton was sent as Lord Lieutenant in 1670, v
anH^with him as secretary. Sir Ellis Leighton. They"~were~ .
both supporters of royal prerogative, and inclined to favour
the Catholics. The heads of the Corporation were all most
loyal, and devoted to Ormonde, but many were opponents of
arbitrary power, and still breathed the spirit of the Common-
wealth ; the City Commons numbered many Roman
Catholics. Of the twelve aldermen who had subscribed
towards the Hospital Mark Quin, Sir Francis Brewster, Enoch y
Reader, Richard Tighe, Daniel Hutchinson, Lewis Desmy- j
nieres, and Sir Joshua Allen had been or were to be Lord '
Mayors and chairmen of our board, and Davys the Recorder
was an original benefactor. About this time there had been
some riotous meetings of the City x\ssembly, of which tlie
new government now took advantage.
By the Act of Explanation of the Act of Settlement the
Lord Lieutenant in Council was empowered to make Rules
with statutory efficacy for regulating all corporations, and
the election of their officers and members, and in 1671 Ne w j 1^
Rules were accordingly published by Lord Berkeley. 5 As to
him our Charter of the following year is addressed by the \[f^V'L
King, his name is perpetually connected with our Hospital,
and gives us some interest in his career.
Pepys tells how he dined with him and Leighton in 1663,
and " there was admirable good discourse of all kinds,
•^ 'J'hese Rules are printed in Gilljert's Calendar ^ 5-548.
E
50 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
pleasant and serious. "6 Berkeley was somewhat of a swash-
buckler, and would boast that he had fought more set fields
than any man in England, and this was true enough, for he
had great merit withal, and was one of the most slashing
cavaliers in the Civil War. 7 He had fought the Scots in the
Covenanter Campaign of 1639, and was knighted at Berwick
by Charles I. After the war broke out in England he had a
command in the west, where he defeated Cromwell, and won,
he said, five pitched battles, overran Devon and part of
Somerset, taking Exeter and Taunton, but after Naseby his
career of victory ceased and he was obliged to surrender
Exeter to Fairfax in April, 1646, departing, however, with
the honours of war. He was one of the counsellors of poor
Charles when he made his tragic visit to the Isle of Wight,
for in his vanity he believed he could win over the Parlia-
mentary generals. During Cromwell's regime he served
under Turenne in the Low Countries, fighting Conde and the
Spaniards. Then he rejoined the exiled Royal Family in
Holland, was made Controller of James's household and was
ennobled at Brussels in 1658, as Baron Berkeley, of Stratton,
which was one of the chief scenes of his victories in Cornwall.
j,.^ On the Restoration he was m.ade Lord President of Connaught,
an office he held for life, master of the Ordnance, and a Com-
missioner of Tangier. His repute in London was that he had
all along been a fortunate man, though a passionate and weak
one in policy, and Lord Clarendon, whilst admitting his
military merit, exposes his vacuity, want of tact, and
ignorance of human nature. Pepys^ tells how his friend
W^ren told him of how Berkeley controlled the household of
James. Duke J amies had a perquisite of the Wine licences ;
these were farmed out at a high rent, but Berkeley found he
could get a higher, and then perpetrated a job flagrant even
in those days. The lessees surrendered for a fixed annual
payment of £1,500, and the licences were re-let to the higher
bidder, but the private arrangement was that the lessees
were to have only /800 a year of the ;{i,5oo, Berkeley taking
/700 for himself. He came here with strong leanings to the
^ Diary 2, p. 141. '^ lb., 345. ^ lb., 4-175.
TEMP. CHARLES II., 1668-1675 51
Catholics ; he caused a scandal by lending the Castle i
plate to the Roman Catholic Archbishop Peter, for a 1^
religious function, and he told that prelate he hoped himself
to see High IMass in Christ Church. He built in the sixties a
magnificent palace in Piccadilly, where Devonshire House
now stands, at a cost of £20,000, with glorious gardens behind.
How much of this cam.e from the revenues of Connaught and
the wine licences ? It was close by the still more splendid
palace of Lord Clarendon. Both had tragic ends. Evelyn 9
deplores how in 1684 Clarendon's was demolished, and how
at Lady Berkeley's request he himself laid out sweet Berkeley
gardens for streets where Berkeley Square is now. The
house was reserved. Princess Anne lived there when William
w^as King, but it went away in fire in 1733. After his return
to England he was sent ambassador to France to negotiate
the treaty of Nimeguen. He died in 1678 ; his three sons
succeeded to his title, but the peerage became extinct in the
third generation.
Lcighton, the son of a Scotch divine, once pilloried for
malignancy towards the Crown and the bishops, was brother
of the saintly Archbishop Leighton of Glasgow' ; he was not
a saint himself, rather a scampish courtier of the Sedley type,
though with a Scotsman's eye to the main chance. Sir Ellis
had begun his career as a soldier, but in the exile, became
secretary to the Duke of York in Holland, and was knighted
there. His real Christian name was the old testam.ent Elias
or Elisha, which he softened to the more mundane Ellis
when a man of fashion. After the Restoration he w'as made
secretary to the Duke of York, and to the Prize Office in
connection with the Admiralty, got himself called to the Bar,
made a doctor of laws, and practised in the court of Ad-
miralty. In a note to Evelyn's Diary he is said by one to be
" a mad freaking fellow," by another, " one for a speech of
fortv words the wittiest man that ever he kne\\', and one of
the Dest companions at a meal in the world." He was
counsel for Pepys, as Secretary to the Navy, in an Admiralty
cause in 1667, and made, Samuel says, 10 a very silly m.otion
' Diary, 2-197. ^"^ Diary, 27th March, 1667.
52 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
on our behalf which did neither hurt nor good ; but in the
Castle Tavern by Exeter Honse that day, ' 1 find him a
wonderful witty ready man, for sudden answers and little
tales and sayings, very extraordinary witty.' " He was
certainly vcr}' versatile. Evelyn^ i in 1663 goes to see Sir Ehas
Leighton's project of a cart with iron wheels, and Pepys also
tells how he saw^ at Lord Berkeley's new house the new
experiment of a cart with little wheels in the axle tree to
make it go with half the ease. He also was said to favour the
Roman Catholics, probably from his connection with the
Duke of York. He came here seemingly with the intent,
attributed by Dr. Johnson to Scottisli immigrants, of
living on the natives without animo revert endi to his native
land.
So, riots having occurred in our Corporation, " Lord
f Berkeley's Rules '" were issued to curb the Commons.
^ These ordained that all Assemblies should be held with due
'■ respect to the Lord Mayor and x\ldermen without clamour,
disturbance, or contention. The Lord Mayor, Recorder,
Sheriffs, Town Clerk, and Auditors were to be elected by the
Lord Mayor and Aldermen only, subject to the approval of
the Government. Nothing was to be debated save on a
petition previously submitted to the Aldermen. All
members, including the Commons, v/ere to take the Oath of
Supremiacy, and the famous Oath of Non-resistance, then
devised by the Cabal, declaring abhorrence upon any pre-
tence whatever of taking arms against tlie King or those
commissioned by him. The sanction of the Rules was dis-
franchisemerit of any who disobeyed them.
The Rules of course increased the popular commotion.
A cry was raised that they were passed to enable Davys the
Recorder to get a lease from the Corporation of the city water
rates and to exploit these in his own interest. Perhaps there
was some truth in the cry. With the Recordership Davys held
the lucrative office of Clerk of the Tholsel, equivalent to Town
Clerk, bur lie was a magnate, son-in-law of /\rchbishop
Michael Boyle, who, as Lord Chancellor, then dominated the
1^ Diary, 17th September, 1663,
TEMP. CHARLES II., 1668-1675 53
Privy Council. Sir Ellis Leigliton utilized the opposition ;
he got at Sir John Tottie, the Lord Mayor, and a little plan
was formed by which Sir Ellis was to be Recorder, and Sir
John Clerk of the Tholsel, vice Davys cashiered. So in April, , .
1672, an Assembly was held, afterwards decided to be wholly
illegal. There were only four Aldermen with the Lord ]\Ia3'or;
on a petition of some of the Commons Davys and eight
Aldermen were charged with crimes and misdemeanours ;
they were not summoned to make defence, they were not
heard, no proofs were adduced, but they were all expelled.
Sir Wm. D avys, o ur subscribing governors IMark Quin and '
Sir Francis Brewster, Tighe, Hutchinson, Reader, Desmy- -<
nieres, and Sir Joshua Allen were, in modern phrase, fired
out of the Corporation, though they had loyally accepted
Lord Berkeley's Rules. Sir Ellis was proclaimed Recorder,
and Tottie clerk of the Tholsel.
But if any of the Corporation thought Leighton was their
tribune they reckoned without their host. On 4 April he miade
a charming inaugural speech to the Corporation,^- he told them
that he, as their good Recorder, would be their good
counsellor, and then that corporations are the creatures of
the monarchy, bound to depend upon and to uphold it ; that
the aldermen were the creatures of the Corporation, an
abstract of the wdsest and wealthiest amongst them, whose
duty it was to ease the Commons of the burthen and dis-
turbance of numerous assemblies, but especially it ^vas their
duty to depend upon the King, to have no politic maxims
of their own, no headiness or restiness but leave all affairs
of State to the piet}- and i)nidcnc(' of the prince. The ejected
members he jauntily alluded to as a few who affected an
ol igarchy, and linking to themselves factio ns, bred in the
Commons an unnatural stiffness, c ontrary to the temper
they should show to his least intimation of the King's
pleasure.
"^ut Davys and his father-in-law, Boyle, to say nothing
of our aldermen governors, were not the men to submit to
all this. Mandamuses were at once applied for in the King's
1- Gilbert's Calendar, 5-558.
54 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Bench, and petitions to King Charles were addressed by the
evicted officers and backed in London by Ashley, Lord
Shaftesbury, who had now become arch champion of the
Protestant interests. The result was that Lord Berkeley's
Viceroyalt}' ceased in May, 1672, and Arthur Capel, Earl of
Essex^succeeded, not, however, coming over here till August.
To him and his Council the King in Council in London re-
ferred the petitions, with a counter-petition of the newly
constituted Corporation.
The cause came on before the Privy Council here on 11
September. There was a strong board of fourteen members,
including Primate Margetson, Archbishop Boyle Lord
Chancellor, the Earl of Arran, and several otlier peers, Jones,
Bishop of Meath, and Sir John B^'sse, Chief Baron, ci-devant
Recorder. Little chance for Leighton in such a court. At
the first hearing the new Corporation were silent, but they
then petitioned to have counsel assigned, and to be allowed to
prove that the evicting Assembly was a lawful one, and that
the evicted had been expelled for just cause. Six counsel
were accordmgly assigned them, Sir Nicholas Plunkett, who
had been a chief of the Confederates in the Civil Wars of the
forties, was their leading counsel. The case was resumed in
the Privy Council on 18 September, fromi nine o'clock to two,
and on the 20th from nine to six, when the Council unani-
moush^ decreed that the expulsions were illegal, that Davys
and our seven other founders should be restored, and the
intruders expelled in turn, and that all their acts should be
expunged from the city records. The costs of the evicted
tenants were to be paid by the City Treasurer, in which office,
Enoch Reader was now reinstated. He had been forced to
give up the keys on pain of breaking open the doors of the
Treasury. The election of Tottie to the Mayoralty for the
second year was annulled, and Alderman Dee}^ appointed for
1672-].
Leighton now disappears from our scene. The scars of
this warfare are still apparent in our city records, for two
parchments were removed from the Assembly Rolls under
the expimging order of the Privy Council, though this was
TEMP. CHARLES II.. 1668-1675 55
disobeyed for two years, and there is a gap of twelve months
in the annals now.
Berkeley's successor, Arthur Capel, first Earl of Essex
of that famih', remained Lord Lieutenant to 1677. In
September, 1 672, he issued New Rules superseding Berkeley's.
These proved of lasting historical moment in the cit}^ for
more than a century, notably when James II. was King, and
in the agitations of Charles Lucas. They are printed in the
Public Statutes, appended to the Act of Explanation. They
are very accurateh^ framed and are known to have been
drawn by Chief Baron Bysse. B}^ them the C omm on
Council was to consist of twenty-four aldermen, sitting
apart, eight being a quorum, the Commons were to sit in
a separate room, the sheriffs presiding, forty-eight being
sheriffs' peers, and ninety-six members chosen triennially
by the city guilds. All members were to take the Oatjis of '
Allegi ance, Supremac y, and Non-resistance, but the
restrictions of debate to subjects sanctioned by the
aldermen contained in Berkeley's Rules is not repeated.
The election of Lord Mayor, Recorder, Sheriffs, and
Town Clerk are made subject to the approval of the
Lord Lieutenant and Privy Council, which if not accorded
within ten days of presentation a new election must
be held, and so from time to time. The (hoice of
Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, and Treasurer, was vested in the
aldermen alone. But on the side .of liberality the Oath of ?
Sti pron acy coidd he dispensed with by the Viceroy, and all I
resident traders and artificers, irrespective of creed, and even , "^
if foreigners and aliens, were to be admitted to the freedom
o f the city on payment of twenty shillings and taking the
Oath of Allegiance alone. The rumiblings of this civic earth-
quake muttered on for a good while and angered Lord Essex
much. His Rules were denounced from many quarters, by
the great jurist, Dudley Loftus, as unconstitutional, by the 1
strong Protestants, because allowing dispensations from the
Oath of Supremacy to be given by the ViceroV fo some Catholics,
by Presbyterians of the Covenant, as contauiing the doctrine
of passive obedience. Then some of the Guilds presented a
56 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
gold chain to Sir John Tottie for his pams in supporting the
privileges of the city, and two of the Leighton corporators,
though expelled, had silver cups cast with the inscriptions : —
" Made in the year when Philpot and Gressingham were
aldermen." Then the Privy Council Order to erase the
mutinous records of 1672 long remained unexecuted, for
Tottie, who seems to have been a general favourite, was
reinstated in the clerkship of theTholsel, and as such refused
to expunge them. Lord Essex, in 1674-75, writes to Sir Henry
Coventry, now principal secretary of State, and to Lord
Arlington, his predecessor, who was now the King's
ChamDerlain, comiplaining of Philpot, the haberdasher, as
one of the ringleaders of mutin}/, and that his silver cups
were being constantly used in the feasts of the city. Of
Tottie he speaks " as a person of as much disloyalty as any
about in this city, which he has brought into a mutinous
temper." He bitterh^ describes how, when in obedience to a
second order of the Privy Council to erase the illegal records
the Lord Mayor and Aldermen were ready to comply, the
Commons had refused, and when the third order menacing
penalties came, and the aldermen proceeded to obey, the
Commons tumultuously broke up the Assembly. Lord
Essex advises the council that there will be no peace till the
chief incendiaries smart for it, and that it will be necessary
for the Crown to revoke the City Charters. This threat
brought the opposition to their senses, and the cancellation
was effected at last in 1675.
There were certainly counter currents at work in the
movement, and it is not quite clear how far old political
aninms had inspired the expulsion of tliese eiglitjounders.
Five of themjiad indeed been members of the Corporation of the
Commonwealth, but Sir Wm. Davys had been made Recorder
on the Restoration, and Sir Francis Brewster and Sir Joshua
Allen had become aldermen afterwards, but two of the other
five at least had been Cromwelhan notables. Richard Tighe
was Mayor in 165 1, and was succeeded next year by Daniel
Hutchinson. Tighe and Hutchinson were summoned to
represent Dublin in Oliver's two parliaments of 1654 and
TEMP. CHARLES II., 1668-1675 57
1656. When Henry Cromwell came to Dublin Castle as
Lord Lieutenant, he, in 1659, formed two regiments in the city,
in view of a suspected Royalist uprising ; they were of ten
and nine companies respectively, with the Mayor for the time
being Commander-in-Chief. Tighe was named Colonel of one,
and Hutchinson Captain of the Horse,with po\\< i- to nominate
his own officers, but with these they joined in the celebration
of the King's coronation on Oxmantown Green. Enoc h
Reader, another of The Evicted Eight, \\?iS a Captain in one of
tlu' rcuimimts. Rich ard Tighe acquired large estates, and is
ancestor of the eminent families of Woodstock, Kilkenn}',
and Rossana, Wicklow , and a large progeny of distinguished
people, amongst whom we may include INIar}' Tighe, the
graceful poetess of Psyche. John Preston also had been
Mayor in 1653 in the Cromwell regnne. He, too, acquired
l ar^e estates in Me ath and"^ueen's County, and was ancestor
of the Prestons of Ballinter, of whom his namesake, John,
was created Lord Tara in 1800, on the Union. John Preston's
name is memorable in the Blue Coat still. He granted
to the Hospital a charge on his Queen's County estate,
originally yielding to the School ^^20 a year, but which
more than a century after brought upwards of twenty-fold
more, in a startling litigation to be noticed in due course. '3
And his original allotment in Oxmantown Green, which he
bestowed at once on the Hospital, is still amongst our endow-
ments. It adjoins the site of the present school. Hutchinson
al so made a fortune purchasing from a Cromwcllian
adventurer, and afterwards obtaining a grant of lands in
King's County and County Down under the Act of vSettle-
ment. He, however, left daughters only, and his name
cannot now be further traced. He was member for Oueen's
County in the Irish Parliament of the Restoration from
1661-1666. He bequeathed £300 to the Hospital by will.
Lewis Desmynieres, another of the eight, was a Dutchman,
and had with his brother John been in the Corpora tion of
the Commonwealth, John serving as Sheriff in 1654, but
Lewis, with the Westenras, also Dutch merchants, were
1^ Infra, Final Chapter.
58 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
naturalized b}^ Act of Parliament in 1662, John became Lord
Mayor in 1666, and Lewis in 1670. He did not make a fortune,
for we find him a few years after a supplicant for aid from
the city.
Sir Joshua Allen was one of the most distinguished citizens
of th^~period.M His father, an eminent Master Builder,
favoured by Strafford, was of Dutch origin. He left a good
estate, which, in his son's hands, became a large fortune,
and ithus he was the founder of a noble family, which, in the
fem^ale line, is still represented by the Earl of "of Carysfort.
He acquired the great property which his son, Colonel Allen,
enlarged into the finest demesne in the County Dublin,
reaching from Foxrock and Carrickmines to Blackrock and
the sea, part of which has been known in our times as
Stillorgan Park. Sir Joshua remained for many years a
useful governor of the Blue Coat ; he was a strong adherent
of the Protestant interest, to which he probably, though a
royalist, owed his expulsion by Leighton, and to this was
certainly due his flight from Dublin in the acme of the
Tyrconnell regime in 1688, when he retired to his wife's
family in Chester. Here he joined William III. in the
embarkment of whose army to Ireland, he took a prominent
part, and returning home after the Battle of the Boyne, he
was, at once, nominated High Sheriff of Dublin by William,
though he does not seem to have actually taken office, for
he was in ill-health and died in the next year. His son,
Colonel John, who was M.P. for Dublin, and for Wicklow,
was created Baron of Stillorgan and Viscount Allen, to be
followed by live of the family in succession till the peerage
became extinct with the sixth Viscount, Joshua William,
Colonel in the Guards, who fought at Waterloo, and died
unmarried. But the sister and co-heiress of the third
Viscount, who was M.P. for Carysfort, married in 1750 Sir
John Proby, to whom she brought a large share of the
Stillorgan and Blackrock and Wicklow estates, and he, in
1792, became first Lord Carysfort. Joshua, the second
^* See a very interesting account of the Aliens in F. EIrington Ball's
History of the County Dublin, Vol. I., 120.
TEMP. CHARLES II., 1668-1675 59
Viscount, is the Troilus of Swift's Lampoons. Thev had
been friends, but when, grateful for the Dean's fierce fight for
Irish Manufactures, the city presented him with the freedom
of the city in a gold box, Lord Allen, who belonged to the
alarmed court party, violently assailed him as a Jacobite
in the House of Lords, and so aroused the wrath of the past
master in ridicule and invective, who could never endure
any criticism of himself. The last Viscount was a " character,"
and a hero of clubs, in which he was known as King Allen.
He had lost the remnant of the Dublin estates and became
insolvent. A sketch of him in Burke's Romance of the
Aristocracy, tells how having raised a loud laugh in his club
by a sharp joke on a brother member, a banker, the latter
next day retaliated with a once famous repartee. Address-
ing Allen amid a large audience, he said : — " Why, Allen,
I find you are only half a king." " How is that," said the
Viscount, angrily. " Because I have heard you have just
compounded with your creditors for ten shillings in the
pound, so you are only Half a Sovereign." This was the
end of the Aliens.
Mark__2iuin, to whom Ossory wrote the initial letter, and
to whom he entrusted the primal donation which he followed
himself with £100, and a perpetual annuity of £5, personally
organised the work in i65q. He did not live to see it com-
pleted, he died in 1674, but he must be held a primary
founder, and claims an obituary notice here, especially as
his memory has been unjustly consigned to a grim im-
mortality by Swift in one of his most savage pasquinades.
The Dean had himself no grudge against him, but used his
tragic fate as a weapon to wound his arch-enemy, Quin's
grandson, Chief Justice Wliitshed, on his principle that any
stick was good enough to beat a dog. He was in truth one of
the worthiest citizens of his day ; chosen alderman in 1654,
Lord Mayor in 1667, and Treasurer in 1668, he was in the
Corporation thirty-two years, to his death. He lived in the
High Street, opposite St. Michael's Church, the site of the
Synod Hall, and was its chief parishioner ; the church plate
was kept in liis house for safe custodv ; a successful merchant.
6o FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
he left an estate of £1,000 a year, a large fortune ni those
times, but his domestic felicity was not in proportion. Mrs.
Ouin was fair but frail. The alderman, maddened with
jealous}^, and rushing from his house one morning at ten
o'clock, bought a new razor and, witlidrawing into Christ
Church Cathedral, cut his own throat in St. Mary's chapel.
His fortune passed to his son James, who was a graduate of
Trinity College. This son became a member of the Bar in
England, where he married a presumed widow, a lady whose
husband had been absent and unheard of for many years.
In 1693 she bore James Quin an only son, also James, but
shortly afterwards the supposed dead husband reappeared,
and, unlike poor Enoch Arden, re-entered and reclaimed
his Penelope, thus illegitimatising her son, young Ouin.
Old Mark's next heirs were the Whitshed family5 the children
of his daughter. They appealed to the law, taking advantage
of the illegitimacy, for they were a famnly of lawyers, and
succeeded to the Alderman's estate. In 1720, Sir William.
Whitshed, Mark Quin's eldest grandson, was Lord Chief
Justice of the Irish King's Bench. In that year Swift, in
fury at the English policy which, having prohibited the
export of Irish woollen goods, went on to prohibit the Irish
from even weaving woollens for themselves, emerged as a
patriot giant in the land of his adoption. He hurled forth
his proposal for the universal use of Irish manufactures, in
which he suggests that Ireland would never be happy till a
law were made for burning everything that came from
England, except her people and her coal. Prospero had
raised the storm ; the Government took alarm ; the printer
was prosecuted. Swift writes to Pope that one in high office
had personally gone to the Chief Justice and asked that the
prosecution might be pressed with the utmost rigour of the
law. And so it was : the Chief presided, but the wliole
country was with the printer and Dean. The jury returned
a verdict of not guilty. The Chief Justice raged ; he sent
the jury back nine times and kept them twelve hours till he
tired them into giving him a special verdict to be argued
in bank. Swift tells Pope that the judge had put his hands
TEMP. CHARLES II., 1668-1675 61
to his breast and solemnly avowed to the Protesant jury
that the printer's design was to bring in the Pretender.
The case never came on for argument. Piibhc opinion in
Ireland was all one way, and, the Duke of Grafton succeeding
as Lord Lieutenant, the Government entered a Nolle
Prosequi. The Dean's second duel with the judge was
shortly after, when Harding, Swift's printer, was prosecuted
for the Fourth D rapier Letter. Swift circulared the Grand
Jury in his own style the night before the trial. They
ignored the bill next day, despite the vehemence of the
thwarted judge, who discharged the Grand Jury, again hi a
rage. The lawyers of the day regarded this as unconstitutional.
Through both these contests the Dean assailed the judge
With all his matchless prowess of logic and lampoon, rapier
and bludgeon, shafts, feathered with fun and poisoned with
rancour, till he is supposed to have driven him to a pre-
mature grave. He raked up the buried griefs of Mark Ouin,
which would have touched his better nature in themselves,
to smite his grandson.
Witness this Trilogy.
Tlie judge speaks : —
I.
1 hate the Church, ami with good reason.
For there my grandsire cut his vveason :
He cut his weason at the altar,
I keep my gullet for the halter.
The T)ean speaks : —
2.
In Church your grandsire cut his throat,
To do the job too long he tarried.
He should have had my hearty vote,
To cut his throat before he married.
The judge speaks : —
3-
I'm not the grandson of that ass, Quin,
Nor can you prove it, Mistrc Pasquin,
My grand dame had gallants by twentie's,
And bore my mother by a prentice.
This when my grandsire knew, they tell us he
In Christcliurch cut his throat for jealousy.
And since the Alderman was mad, you see.
Then I must be so too, Ex traduce.
62 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Swift's editors curiously have not identified his ass, Quin,
with our worthy Founder, In vindicating his memory now,
we may recall that that other grandson, the illegimatised
young James Quin, lived to be the greatest actor and wit
of his day. Intended for the Bar in Dubhn, when he was
disinherited he went on the stage. His jokes set London
tables in a roar for a generation, and he was one of the
greatest Falstaffs that ever trod Drury Lane ; a fine figure
of a man ; a great elocutionist ; he lived to hear George the
Third's first King's Speech, and the old man cried " I taught
the boy to speak." He was sometimes coarse and over-
bearing, but he is a creditor of Literature, for he once
redeemed Thomson of the Seasons from a debtor's prison,
paying the debt in honour of the Poet, for personally he
didn't know him. And as to the grandson, Whitshed, it is
fair to remind that even Swift acknowledges that, politics
apart, he was a fine judge. His memorial was the last
which remained m old St. Michael's when the church was
taken down thirty-five years ago to build the Synod Hall ;
a slab, v/ith a Latin inscription that any judge might be
proud of, telhng how, as Chief Justice, first of the King's
Bench, and then of the Common Pleas, he was " Judex
indefessus perspicax iiicorriiptns, who so bore himself as a
man, who both believes there will be a Supreme Judge
and hopes it."
The civic shock may now read as a temtpest in a teacup,
yet it w^as, as we have said, the vibration of one that shook
the crown and ministry and parliament of England in 1672-
75 on the doctrine of passive obedience, the prerogative of
the dispensing power, and the Test Act. The Oath of Non-
resistance imposed by both tlie Berkeley and the Essex
rules, agitated the House of Lords with one of its most
memorable debates, that lasted lor seventeen days in 1674,
seeming to involve the fate even of the dynasty. It gave
occasion to Shaftesbury's famous Letter from a Person of
Quality to a Friend in the Country, to escape prosecution
for which were called out all his consummate arts in keeping
up the agitation. This oath was framed by the great Lord
TEMP. CHARLES IT., 1668-1675 03
Clarendon in the first loyal outbursts of the Restoration,
but that heat was cooling, under the intrigues of Charles
and his Cabal, not only in England, but here too-^"?
But before BerkcUv left us the Charter had been drawn
by Davys, and read before Charles mXouncil, and to the
Lord Lieutenant came a royal letter, dated at Whitehall,
24 Oct. ,1671,16 directing him to cause Letters Patent, under the
Great Seal of Ireland, to pass conveying to the Mayor, Sheriffs,
Commons and Citizens of Dublin, the parcel in Oxmantown
Green on which the Hospital and Free School is already
begun, "to be held of us, our heirs and successors in common
soccage as a mansion house and abode for^the relief of poor
children, aged, maimed and impotent per)plr, ])v the
grantees, who are to be incorporated as a body politique,
by the name of ' The Governors of the Hospital and Free
School of King Charles the Second, Dublin.' " The Letters
Patent are to empower the Governors at their will and
pleasure from time to time to place therein such master or
masters and such num.bers of poor people and children and
such officers and ministers of the Hospital and Free School, as
likewise an able, learned, pious and orthodox minister, to"
be approved by the Archbishop of Dublin for the time being,
who shall read Divine service and preach and teach the
word of God to such as shall reside, and catechise such of
the children as shall be in the school. The Governors are
enabled to hold lands to the value of £6,000, notwithstanding
the statutes of mortmain, and to make leases of buildings
for 41 and of lands for 21 ^-ears, and the letters are to contam
such clauses and privileges "as in the Charters granted by
our Royal Predecessor, King Edward Sixth to Ihe Mayor
and Com.monalty of London for the erection of Christ's
Hospital and Saint Thomas, his Hospital and Bridewell."
This was followed by our Charter. It is dated the 3rd
r~^ 15 The materials of this chapter have been mainly found in Gilbert's
Calendar of City Records and his preface to Vol. V. The Journal of the
Hospital, the Diaries of Evelyn and Pcpys, and the Dictionary of National
Biography. There is a confusion in both the Diaries, made more con-
founded by the indexes between Lord Berkeley of Stratton, and Lord
Berkeley of the great Berkley Castle family.
16 Pat. Roll Chane., 23, Cor. 2., pt. i. (f. m. 25.)
64 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
December, 1671, and slightly amplilies the royal letter. It
is in effectual force to-day, and is set forth in full in our
appendix.! 7 The original is now in the Public Record Ofhce;
engrossed in old English text on a parchment roll, two feet
square, it is illuminated in gold and tinctures, the Royal
Arms with the harp in the third quarter, separated from the
supporting lion and unicorn by roses and thistles, tulips
and carnations, which surmount the text. The great initial
C of the King's name encloses a good portrait of his Majesty
in ponderous periwig. In the left margin are the city arms
Dlazoned in azure, with an unblazoned oval below, probably
left for our seal when chosen. On the m.argin of the second
skin, a lady under a canopy leads a naked boy and bears a
naked baby at her breast — though presumably a distressed
' widow, she is clothed like the King's daughter in a red petticoat
, and a green gown, and some might think the group more
I disreputable than pathetic, yet, it has been the cognizance
of our seal ever since. The instrument, however, is a very
interesting sample of the Royal Charters of the day. The
Great Seal of Ireland is attached, a waxen circle of five
inches. This is of the pattern used by the P^nglish Kings
from the very early times. On the obverse the King in
armour gallops on a caparisoned steed with a greyhound
beneath. On the reverse he is enthroned under a canopy,
the harp and crown are on both faces, tlie legend round each
circumference : — Carolns II., Fidci Defensor Dei gratia
Magncs Britannicu FrancicB HiberriKS Rex. The Charter
bears leste " 3rd day of December, in the three and twentieth
year of our Reign," and is simply signed Domville. Sir
William Domville was then the distinguished Attorney-
General, an office he held for twenty-eight years, and a Privy
Councillor, and is the progenitor of the eminent family of
Santry and Loughlinstown, but it is more likely that our
signatory was one of his two sons, who then jointly were
patentees of the clerkship of the Crown and Hanaper, for
though Sir William was a very worthy public servant and
general favourite, he knew how to take care of himself ; by
17 Appendix.
TEMP. CHARLES II., 1668-1675 65
grants in reversion this clerkship of the Ciown and Hanaper
remained with his descendants for one hundred years.'? But
traffic in offices did not shock much in these good old times.
Meanwhile, peace being restored, our founders resumed
activity. In Oct., 1673, a g rand co mmittee of "Sub-
Governors and Trustees" was named, consisting of 117
members : — Sir Joshua Allen, Lord Mayor, and Davys,
Recorder, all the aldermen, both jSheriffs, forty-six Sheriffs'
Peers, the f orty-four Masters of the Cit y Guilds, and the
twenty Churchwardens of the eleven City parishes. Their
names appear in the first entries of our first Minute Book,
and include Tottie, and Philpot and Gressingham of the
silver cups. This appointment of Governors is noteworthy,
for it was an act of the whole Corporation, and from it arose
the usage of co-opting from outside the Corporation, which
we shall see was afterwards challenged bv Charles Lucas
and others as illegal. They are empowered by the City
Assembly of Christmas, 1673, to address the King and the
Lord Lieutenant as they deem fit for benevolence to forward
the good work. By the end of 1672 £4,000 had been sub-
scribed, the second list including £100 from Lord Berlcele^^ :
£60 from Primate Margetson ; /.50 each from Archbishop
Boyle, Chief Baron Bysse, and Sir Ed. Smith, late Chief
Justice of the Common Pleas ; /20 each from Sir John
Temple, Master of the Rolls, Sir Robt. Booth, Chief of the
King's Bench, and Capt. James Stopford, son of the ancestor
of the Earl of Courtown. The City gifts comprise /150 from
Sir Francis Brewster ; £75 from Sir Joshua Allen ; £108
from Mr. Williams. Brewer, and /50 from Aldermen Tighe
and Hutchinson, and the Farmers of the City revenues.
The first business before our Grand Committee was Wetten-
hall's petition and the Free School, but, as we have seen, they
could do little for him pending the building of the School,
for they were in straits tliemselves — they had expended their
subscriptions already. Early in 1674 the Hospital was
nearing completion, but money was wanting to finish it,
and as it was planned for three hundred and fifty residents,
^'' See Libey Miinernm.
F
[
66 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
how was it to be filled, and how, when filled, was it to be
maintained ? They fonnd that for annual revenue they
had only the headrents of Oxmantown and St. Stephen's
Green, /170 a year, and £114 of secured annual subscriptions,
they had, no doubt, six of the lots in St. Stephen's Green,
and three in Oxmantown, granted to them in fee-simple
by the allottees, but all still waste, and of their rents and of
the headrents, £850 was now in arrear. ^^450 of promised
subscriptions were still unpaid, and nearly £600 was due to
the builders. So the Committee appealed on a great scale
in March, 1674. First they petitioned King Charles in
person, reciting Lord Ossory's letter to the Corporation of
1668, and the reply of the City, with the project of the
Hospital ; they state the Privy Council had directed them
to begin with all speed possible, promising to contribute
their endeavours to so good a work ; that by the blessing
of God the structure is now almost finished, capable of
receiving three hundred and fifty persons at tlie least, with
.a fair chapel, garden and walks walled about, with all school-
rooms and offices requisite, at the expense of near £4,000 ; they
remind the King of his own Letters Patent directing the
Hospital and Free School to be called for ever by his own
Royal name, and alleging the stately structure to be empty
for want of a suita.ble revenue, tliey implore the Royal
bounty for such maintenance as may enable the Hospital to
continue to succeeding ages "as a monum.ent of your
Majesty's undoubted piety and charity."
But they did not trust to those well-known royal qualities
alone. Th ey enclos ed the petition in a letter to one whom
they heldin true trustful affection, thej)uke of Ormonde, then
in the Court in London, asking him to procure its favourable
admission with the King. They recall the Duke's constant
favours to the city, and, reminding him that Lord Ossory had
given the first encouragement to the erection of the Hospital,
and thus assured them of his Grace's furtherance, they ask
him now to crown the first beginnings of his noble son.
They would remind his Majesty, " who takes the proper
measures of this kingdom from your Grace's better prospect
TEMP. CHARLES II., 166S-1675 67
of them, how glorious to posterit}^ Kings of England have
made themselves by hke foundations ; " and they pray him
to refer their petition to the Lord Lieutenant in Council
for a report from what b; inch of th.e public revenues a
fitting maintenance may be stcur(^d for a work of so great
cliarit}^ so greatTToiibur, and so public an use. "To wliom,"
concludes this letter, " can we humble ourselves but him
who has so long and so well known Joseph." '8
That pathetic allusion to Jo-^eph sounds rather mysterious.
How were the Corporation like Joseph ? Was it that as a
body they wore a coat of many colours which their brothers
sometimes tore ? Ormonde and Ossory, however, seemx to
have understood it, for in 1670, when conferring on Lord
Ossory the freedom of the City, the Corporation wrote that
his name would be second on the roll next to his illustrious
father, who stood first, " your lordship being, in truth, the
second edition of his Grace, whose services to the city during
the calamities of rebellion and civil war had thus known,
pitied, and relieved Joseph in all his miseries."
This letter to the Duke, of March, 1674, referring to Lord
Ossory, speaks of ' ' his preservation from those mighty dangers
which his valour, so greatly celebrated, lately exposed him
to and which we heartily congratulate. "^9 This refers to the
great sea fight with the Dutch in 1673, when Ossory, lately
made Rear Admiral of the Blue, was in com.mLaiid of the first-
rate •' St. Michael." Admiral Sir E. Sprague, who, Commanded-
in-Chief ,was killed and his ship disabled. Ossory defended her
through the day, and brought her off safely at night, every
man on his own quarter-deck being slain save himself, his
page, and Capt. Narborough. For this he was made Rear-
Admiral of the Red.
If these alluring letters of the Corporation and one they
addressed to Lord Lieutenant Essex also, did not bear
much fruit in endowmenfs, they"" certainly had a royal
reception. There was a Council at Whitehall, 8 i\Iay, 1674,
at which our petition was presented. King Charles pre-
^^ Gilbert's Calendar VI-, 497.
^^ Historical Manuscripts G Rep., 719, Note b.
4
68 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
sided in person. Beside him was his cousin, Prince
Rupert, with the Chancellor Finch, Danby, Lord Treasurer
Arlington, still Principal Secretary of State, the Dukes of
Ormonde and Lauderdale, The Lord Privy Seal, the Earls
of Ossory, Bridgewater, Northampton, Carlisle, Bath,
Craven, Tweedale and Carbury, Viscounts Halifax and
Faulconbergh, the Bishop of London, and Lords Mainard
and Newport, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir H.
Coventry, second Secretary of State, the Vice Chamberlain,
Mr. Monta.gue, and the Speaker of the House of Commions.
This Committee of twenty-six of the Lords of the Universe
ordered Arlington to prepare a letter referring the petition
of the Blue Coat to the Lord Lieutenant and Council in
Ireland, who were to report what was fit for his Majesty to
do in the matter. This letter was sent by Arlington on
12 May.
Essex in Council considered it on i June, when they
appointed the Primate, the Archbishop, and Chancellor
Boyle, Chief Justice Booth, Chief Baron Bysse, Jones,
Bishop of Meath, Sir Thos. Stanley, and Sir Chas. Mere to
consider fresh proposals of the Corporation for a mxainten-
ance for the Hospital, and to report to the Council accor-
dingh'.
So in July the Committee sent to Lord Essex a well
thought out scheme, estimating /400 as necessary to comi-
plete and furnish ; £600 to pay the builders, and for annual
maintenance of three hundred and fifty inmates, an endow-
ment of £2,795 a year. Forth e £1,000 cash the}^ proposed that
an immediate grant should be made by the Treasury, and
for the annual revenue a perpetual charge on the excise of
ale, beer and strong waters, and the hearth money of the
city, and they reiterate the claim given them by Lord
Ossory's first letter and the Charter granted by the sovereign
himself.
But pending these treaties they determined to open the
Hospital, whether endowed or not. They were without
funds, and knew that to fill it was out of the question, so
resolving to begin with not more than eighty inmates, they
TEMP. CHARLES II.. 1668-1675 69
sent circulars to each of the eleven ]:)arishes, and each of the
City Guilds, requesting each to furnish the names of three
boys not under six yearS; and not sickly or maimed, and to
provide three pounds ten yearly for maintenance of each
child, promising that any benefactors securing this should
have the status of First Founders and be so recorded. At
the same time they posted the Exchange and all the City
Gates with printed offers of leases of our six lots in the two
Greens, and they sent out a strong deputation to perambu-
late the City begging for bounty, and to remove all objections
and doubts that might be made. Dr. Wettenhall having
now becomiC a churcti dignitary, the Governors appointed
as our first dc facto chaplain, the Reverend Fewis Prythirch,
nominated by Archbishop Boyle at a salary of ten pounds
a year with diet and lodging, iMr. Thomas Howard, as agent,
at £20 yearly. Dr. Ralph Howard, as Physician, Mrs.
Williams, Schoolmistress, to teach the children to read, £6
a year with her keep, a steward, butler, messenger and
porter, a governess, Mrs. Leech, an aged matron, to oversee
the nurses and servants, two nurses, each with charge of
thirty children, and " two drudges " to wash and scour,
at the election of the Governors, who it is to be hoped
elected.
This original staff reads modestly enough, so shortly
after that court at Whitehall with the King in the chair
and Prince Rupert, and the Dukes, and the Earls, and
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and great Ministers of State,
but even Oxford and Eton had miodest beginnings.
On 27 April it was reported to the Assembly that the
chapel and ground over the water, commonly called the
King's Hospital, was fitted and prepared for consecration,
and thereupon a deed of donation was duly executed and
ordered to be presented to his Grace, Michael Boyle, x\rch-
bishop of Dublin. He was great-nephew of Richard the
first, and called the great. Earl of Cork. He was raised to
the Primacy in 1678.
The Hospital occupied 170 feet in length, fronting the
west side of the present Queen Street, covering the space
70 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
from the present No. 69 and thence running north over most
of the broad roadway of the present Blackhall Street, thence
it stretched back with its gardens in a parallelogram 300
feet in depth. It was built on the original lots 87 and 88
Oxmantown (xreen, which had been reserved for a Free
School in the original allotment, and No. 90, Sir William
Davys' lot, wliicli he had made over as his subscription in
i66q, and which is now part of the thoroughfare of Black-
hall Street, but to these a large space from the Green had
been added by the City for gardens and cartilage. There
was a chapel at the south end with a single rounded window
to the street and an infirmary on the north side, and between
these ran the front facade, a long structure of two stories
with six pigeon-house windows in the slanted roof of the
upper one, three at each side of a wooden cupola surmount-
ing the vestibule which projected across the narrow court-
yard between the building and the street, from which it was
fenced by a high wall with a good entrance gate in front of
the vestibule and hall door.
And so at last on 5 MAY, 1675, just twenty-three days less
than six years from the turning of the first sod, our Hospital
was opened, sixt}^ children being admitted, of whom three
were girls. We append the table of the names of these, our
First Pupils, with their nominators, thus helping to fulfil
the promise that the benefactors should be chronicled as
amongst our First Founders.
o
TEMP. CHARLES II., 1668-1675
7T
CHILDREN SENT INTO THE HOSPITAL BY Yi;
SEVERALL BENEFACTrs HEREAFTER NAMED.
Benefactoas" Names.
Names of the Children
Sr. ffra : Brewster, Kt., L.Ma.
City of Dublin
Trinity Guild of Merchts.
Corporation of Cordwainers
Corporation of Coopers
Parish of St. Michan's
St. Werburgh's Parish
St. Michael's Parish
St. John's Parish
St. Kath. & St. Paul's
St. Andrewe's Parish
Mr. Giles Martin
Dame Brewster
Samll. Mollinous, Esq.
Dame Jane Stanley
f John Rames
1^ John Goddin
Barthol. Davis
Wm. Am ill
^ Charles Swetman
[ George Orr
/ David King
\ Jeremy Woodall
Bery. Edsol
^ Wm. Williams
i Peter Dillon
f Charles Camponsky
( Allex Williams
James Saunders
Robt. ffarr
/ Robt. Shelton
\ Wm. Stranger
Robert Paton
f Christr. ]
-{ & [- Mortimer
[ James J
f Thomas Smith
I Henry Chennel
j Edward Williams
1 Daniel Lee
I Thomas Williams
[ Joseph Gough
Mary Archbould
Richd. Kennedy
' Edmond Brookes
Jonath : WhitnoU
Ambrose Johnson
Markt Ellieton
-]! FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Benefactors Names.
Names of the Children.
Robt. Shapcote, Esq.
James Rames
Aid. Danl. Hutchinson
f Thomas Sprinkle
\ John Barker
Aid. Enoch Reader ...
/ John Bennett
1^ Richard Carey
Aid. Rich. Han way ...
Thomas Banks
Mrs. Mary Tighe
\ John Toy
( Thomas Burgis
Mrs. Parry, wife of Dr. Ben. Parry
Joseph Tunn
Mr. Abel Ram
John Hutchinson
Mr. Richard Lord
John Shorr
Mr. Richard Young ...
Christr. Harris
•
Mr. John North
Alexandr ffusland
Mr. Thomas ffrancis ...
Thomas Purtill
Mr. Robt. Brady
John Ogilvy
Mr. Richd. Baker
Osborne Kitteringham
Mr. Piriam Poole
John Cooper
Mrs. Joyce Seile
Anthony Gaghagan
Sr. Joshua Allan
Hugh Ward
Aid. John Preston
John Harris
Ld. Bishop of Ossory...
Thomas Hunt
Sr John Torey, Knt.
Henry ]
Ld. Chief Justice of the King's
' & \ ffoUiott
Bench
John
Mr. George Warburton
Charles Jenkins
Mr. Wm. Bragg
Grace Tunn
Ld. Bp. of Ossory, his lady
Mary Running
Hewit, one of the boys
John Hewett
Walter Harris
Michll ffennel
L 73 ]
CHAPTER IV.
FROM THE OPENING OF THE SCHOOL TO THE END
OF CHARLES IT'S REIGN.
When the School opened, the I<ord Mayor, Sir Francis
Brewster,was our chairman. He had been one of the Evicted
Eight. The work of the Governors in the earl}^ years was of
immense difficulty. None of them were educationists — expert
educationists were unknown then. Crippled as to means,
with some seventy children in a great building, four of them
little girls, most of them of tender years and more fitted for
the care of nurses than of sclioolmasters, and yet including
older boys, for in 1676 we find a boy admitted aged fifteen,
classification, generally difficult, was then impossible. The
essa}' of their 'prentice hands may merit a note. The Board,
then consisting chiefly of business men, began by directing that
the training should be industrial, and to fit the children for
trades, so they were all to be taught the making of shoes,
knitting stockings, and spinning, and materials for this end
were procured a.ccordingly. The teaching of knitting was
entrusted to the nurses, to whom the order hvmianely allows
" a drudge " to ease their housemaids' duties. Six hours
are allotted for handwork and four for lessons. This scheme,
as m.ight be foretold, broke down in a few months ; the
order was rescinded in October, the shoemaker and spinner
were discharged, and the chaplain Prytherch directed to
instruct, assisted by a female teacher. Then it was found
that the number of Sub-Governors, being more than one
hundred, as constituted b}- the Assembly in 1674, was quite
unwieldy, and the Corporation were petitioned to modify
the order, which they did in July, 1675, ^ and ordained
^ Gilbert's Calendar, 5, 78.
74 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL.
tliat henceforth the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, Aldermen, and
Sheriffs' Peers, wdth such other Sub-Governors as they might
think fit, should constitute the Board. The quorum
was to be seven, of whom the Lord Mayor and one Sheriff
were to be always two. This clause v.-as more than once the
cause of trouble and controversy in after years, for no lawful
meeting could be held in the Lord Mayor's absence, as he
was the necessary chairman so long as this order stood, but
it had the salutary effect of idontifymg the School with
the government of the city for a century and three-quarters
afterwards.
But instead of committing instruction and the control
of the house to the chaplain and headmaster Prytherch,
allowing him to select the necessary staff, the Board limited
his teaching functions, and themselves appointed the
assistant masters, the officers, nurses, and servants, all at the
wretched salaries and wages to which their o^^'n meagre
income confined them ; but boards even now are apt to love
patronage and to retain functions which they cannot
adequately discharge. Thus James Rigby was appointed
to teach writing and arithmetic to the whole school daily,
attending from 7 to 11 a.m., and from i to 5 in the afternoon,
at a salary of £^ a year " till the revenue of the Hospital be
greater," along with his lodging and diet. He taught from
the opening of the School for two whole years, so v;e can
read without surprise the entry in 1677 that poor Rigby's
post " is void by his confinement in the Blackdog," the
diabolical debtors' prison by the old Newgate in High Street,
whose horrors are detailed in Gilbert's History of Dublin.
Thereupon Miles Bateman took his place on the same terms,
but he only lasted five months, when we find him. " removed,"
and replaced by Robert Ingram in November— his tenure
was even less than Bateman's. In ]\larch, 1678, he, too, is
" removed," and John Carrington placed in his stead, who
held on for eight months. It took more than a century since
to teach us that teachers are not the menials of mankind.
At last, in November, 1678, the Governors were fortunate
to find an admirable master in English and Mathematics,
OPENING TO END OF CHARLES 11. 's RETGN ^5
who remained in the School for thirty-two years, and was
largely instnimental in its snccessful development. This
was James Mead. Similarly we find three successive
stewards in the first three years. The Governors had
separated this office from that of the agent, Thom.as ]\Ioland,
appointing John Tear at £12 a year, 3'et, they entrusted him
first with all the supplies to the Hospital and tradesmen's
accounts, and then, in addition, with complete control over
the rhi'drt-T), who arc subjected to his moral discipline in all
thmgs,so, in June^ 1677, we have an inquiry of the Governors,
who ftnd that he has improvidently managed the trust
reposed in him, and he is discharged. Allen, succeeding him
on like conditions, holds on for less than a 3^ear, and then
resigns, and in April, 1678, Wetherall is appointed, the
Governors now seeing the expediency of giving him a salary
of £16 witli maintenance in the house for himself and wife.
Yet, though he continued for four years, there is " a full
hearing " of tlie Governors in 1682, on divers matters laid
to his charge, and he is found to be a person not fit to be any
longer continued in the emiployment. Perhaps that wife
had something to do with his downfall, for the dismxisaal
order goes on to commiand that 3ilrs. Hollins, " and all
other women in the Hospital that arc no way useful to the
house have notice forthwith to depart." Eve caused
Adam's eviction from Eden.
An entry of July, 1675 . gives a glimpse of the quaint old city
streets. Casting about for revenue everywliere, the Governors
resorted to an "Act of Assembly of the year before, whicli
empowered the Lord Mayor and Corporation to treat with
the " encroachers," as they were called, who lined the streets
and dowiTto the river with stalls, porches, stands and chairs,
and stating that nothing had yet been done, they asked the
Assem.bly to place these trespassers under rents, these to
be applied for the first seven years to the School, and then
to revert to the City estate.- And this was acceded to.
These encroachments continued for tv.-o centuries more or
less, and a few years since were made subjects of prosecution
- Gilbert's Calendar, 5, 71, 76.
76 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
before our City Magistrates. Booths and tents blocking
the footwalks, fruit stalls obstructing carriage ways too.
Most of these were swept away ; the orange women that sat
round the semicircle fronting Trinity College, and at each
side of Carlisle or O'Connell Bridge, survived to late in the
Victorian age, till trampled out by the march of a ruthless
civilization ; yet, our entry shows some colour of a legal origin
which might have saved some if our entry ha,d been made
known to the justices who suppressed themi.
Whilst awaiting aid from the Crown, the City resorted
to another device, which would sound strangely in the King's
Bench to-day.3 A former Act of Assembly had imposed a
tax upon all brewers and other owners of drays and carts
having iron bound wheels, of ten shillings per cart, to be
paid towards repair of the city pavements, but at the
Tanuar}' Assembly, 1676, they ordered " as a great help to
the Kmg's Hospital," that in lieu of this tax every such
I brewer and owner should deliver to the Steward of the
Hospital, " a barrell of table beer for each carre, and two
barrells for each dray, yearh^." What w^ould the auditor and
the temperance associations think of this ?
Three months a.fter the School opened, William Smith
became Lord Mayor, and our chairman for 1675-6. He was
an original Founder and favourite Governor for nine years.
He was the Wliittington of Dublin, and his unique career,
during which he was Chief Magistrate in eight several years,
casts a strange, yet vivid sidehght on our City in the agony
of the Civil Wars.
The Whittington of Dublin.
Shortly since, our present estimable Chaplain and Head-
master, Rev Mr. Richards, exploring a stratum of forgotten
records, came on a slab below, seemingly of stone, grey and
oxidised, 18 inches by 12, but the weight of which, when
handled, proved it to be of metal, and the face, when
^ Minute Book, Gilbert's Calendar, 5, 94.
OPENING TO END OF CHARLES II.'s REIGN ^^
burnished, disclosed a fine brass thus inscribed, clear as when
it left the hand of the graver :
Neere this Place
WAS Buried the Body
OF William Smith, Esq., an
Alderman of the City of
Dublin In Ireland and who
was Seven Severall
ye ARES Mayor (and Lord Mayor the yeare 1675) of that city
He Died the 31ST
Day of October
Anno Domini 1684
Aetat su^ 82.
25 OF July 1684.
This Brass was presumably taken from the wall of our
original chapel, when ruinous and forgotten, into the new
building a century after his death. Tlie inscription is sur-
mounted with his arms : On a bend dexter three lozenges
between two Unicorns' heads with the City Arms in the
dexter angle. The crest is a Unicorn's head on a ducal crown,
and the motto Dciis liberabit. The graving, black on brass,
does not indicate the blazonry, but the family arms seem
almost identical with those of the Cusack-Smiths, one of
whom was so long the Master of the Rolls in Ireland some
40 years ago, shewing the unicorns azure armed or, on a
field of argent.
This epitaph is simple, but between its lines we can read
in the whole story of the Dublin of the times as if it were a
cypher.
William Smith, at thirty- four, was elected sheriff of
Dublin, 1636, when Wentworth was at the zenith of his
reign, and he took part in some of the great viceroy's civic
reforms. The next year he was made one of the Masters
of the City Works, and in that following was one of the
aldermen in whom then was vested almost the entire civic
power. After Strafford was flung to the wolves of the factions,
that beset him from opposite sides, the Irish rebellion burst
forth in autumn, 1641. Almost connived at by Parsons, the
Lord Justice, and creature of the refractory Parliament,
78 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL.
who used it to promote the Covenant, to discredit the King
and to create forfeitures, in the course of the winter it had
flooded all the land. When Ormonde's victory at Kilrush, and
the raising of the vSiege of Drogheda, had extorted the praise
of Parliament, and he becam.e Marquess, Knight of the
Garter and Commander of the King's forces, Alderman
Smith w^as made Mayor at Michaelmas, 1642 ; the senior
alderman, Kennedy, had, according to usage, been elected
at the spring Assembly, but in the agony of the rebellion,
the city, moneyless, in danger and dismay, crowded with
half-starved fugitives, its revenues unpaid, could scarce find
a candidate who could accept the chief magistracy. In his
first year Parsons was still Lord Justice, and Lambert, Lord
Cavan, who commanded the Government forces in the city,
assumed the civic government also, but Smith withstood
him to the face, and the Corporation, under hi s leadership,
maintained their charter rights before the Privy Council.
Lambert then claimed from the Council to undertake alone
the city defences, with power to enforce the labour of the
citizens, unless the Mayor and City would guarantee the
duty at their own sole charges. The Council referred this to
the Assembly, who, despite their penury, boldly undertook
to construct the defences by the citizens in batches, with
right to call the aid of the army to distrain defaulters
" freed," as they said, " from the extreme pressure of levy-
ing the defaults by authority from the Lord Lambert."
At the spring Assembly, 1643, Carbery, the senior alder-
man, was elected Mayor, but the penury continued. The
3^200 then voted by usage to the Mayor was still unpaid to
Smith, as was that voted to his predecessor in 1642, so that
at the Michaelmas Assembly, Smith remained in ofiice for
his second year. Parsons had now been removed from the
Government, and Ormonde became Lord Lieutenant in
January, 1644. " In the extremity and dearth people were
then dying of hunger, to the great grief of the Corporation,''
and Smith was put at the head of a Commission " to send
away such as the town are not able to relieve, and to take a
course for the relief of the native Poore." He was now senior
OPENING TO END OF CHARLES II.'s REIGN 79
alderman, and at the Spring Assembly was duly elected
Mayor " for his own term according to the law of succession "
from Michaelmas, 1644-1645. During Ormonde's armistice
with the Confederate Catholics there was less confusion in
Dublin, but the reigning dearth may be seen in such facts as
that the great Lord Lieutenant, who, being lefused a guinea
from the Parliament, had mortgaged his own estates, was
forced to borrow £184 from the City, an asset which had fallen
to them b}^ a chance. One Delaporte, had slain a brother
merchant, Panckart, and fled. The City Sheriffs seized his
goods as forfeited by the felony, and realised £184 8s. by
their sale, which went to the credit of the City, and even of
these assets, one part consisted of City plate, pledged to
Delaporte by Wakefield when Mayor in the year before
Smith's first election. And in this his third year, of the three
/200 voted him by the City, £472 was unpaid, for which the
city could only give him a lease of their lands in Baldoyle,
the rent of which he was to retain for the debt, yet, even
this, too, was conditional, on their evicting the tenant, one
Fitzsimons, who held possession more Hibcrnico. In Spring,
1645, Watson, senior alderman in rotation, was elected
Mayor, but, he being also unable to take office, Smith was
again continued at Michaelmas, for his fourth year.
In this he had a conflict with Lord Brabazon, whose
father, the Earl of Meath, had, in the previous reign, un-
successfully claimed exemption from all civic authority
within his Liberties of S. Thomas and Donore. In those
curfew days the keys of the City gates were kept by the
Mayor from sunset to morning. Lord Brabazon at mid-
night demanding the key of the West gate that led to his
manor, could not get it, so he smashed the windows and
doors of Smith's Mayoralty house. The City ordered pro-
secution in the Exchequer, and petitioned the Lord Lieu-
tenant for redress. The citizens were not then bound to
insure against malicious injuries out of the City rates.
But in summer, 1645, the Royal cause weis borne down at
Naseby, and Ormonde heroically holding out for his master,
could now only hope by a treaty witli the Confederate
8o FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Catholics to raise an army to combine with Montrose, his
compeer Marquess, in Scotland, and for this he struggled
two long years. Herein he was thwarted by Rinnucini, the
Pope's Nuncio, who. dreaming of a Catholic Conquest, in-
spired Owen Roe O'Neill to attack the Parliamentary army,
which he destroyed at Benburb in June, 1646, and then urged
him on for the capture of Dublin. O'Neill beleaguered the
City in the autumn with 18,000 wild Irish. Ormonde was
with his army in Meath. Under him Smith was the com-
mander of all the City forces, for which he nominated all the
Captains of companies. Ormonde gave orders that all the
citizens, of every rank and sex, over fifteen years old, should
work at least one day in each week till the defences were
complete. His own noble wife (she was his cousin, the Lady
Elizabeth Preston), led the defenders with ladies of the first
quality, who, with their own fair hands, carried baskets of
earth to repair the fortifications.4 The Marquess, like
Wellington, at Torres Vedras, had ordered the country
round Dublin to be denuded, and on the report of succour
from England, the Irish, unfed, withdrew, dissolving as a
storm cloud. No Assembly that year could be held at
Michaelmas. At Easter, Lake, senior alderman, was elected
Mayor, but Smith was continued to January, 1647, when he
was again elected for the fifth time to hold to Michaelmas
following.
But the Royal cause was now lost. His treaty, denounced
at once by the victorious Parliament, and by the Nuncio,
Ormonde was forced to the choice of to which he should
abandon Dublin. He chose the former. His intention being
rumoured in the city, Smith came to the Privy Council, and
boldly told the Marquess who presided, that he, as Mayor,
was entrusted with the King's sword of this city, and that
he would not resign it to the rebels. Ormonde obliged to
seem offended, ordered him to withdraw, but after some
conference, the Council called him in again, and the Lord
Lieutenant graciously commended him for his resolution to
maintain his Majesty's authority. Then he personally read
■* Gilbert's Calendar, xix, iii.
OPENING TO END OF CHARLES ll.'s REIGN 8i
to him the King's letter, requiring his Lord Lieutenant to
dehver up the sword to the Commissioners of Parhament,
and then the brave Mayor reUictantly acquiesed. It was no
ignoble ending of his five years magistracy, covering all the
unparalleled period of the King's struggle and of Ormonde's
first ascendancy. In the twelve years of Cromwellian supre-
macy which succeeded. Smith did not time-serve the new
regime, as many old Royalists did, but he earnestly discharged
his aldermanic duties, serving as city auditor in seven, and as
city treasurer in four, successive years, and he acted as a
leading member on all the important city committees, on
those for preserving the revenues and rents, lost, some for
ever, in the prevailing confusions, on those for dealing with
the prevalent destitution, on that for securing from the
Parliamentary Commissioners repayment of the loans forced
from the city to support the Cromwellian army. But when
the army had declared for a free Parliament and then for
recall of the King, the City Assembly in ]Ma\% 1660, reciting
that the city had always been firm and faithful to the English
interest and ver\'' instrumental in defending itself against
the Irish rebels, resolved that two aldermen be employed
into England to attend his Majesty, " and to manifest
the city's detestation of his father's murther, and their joy
in his happy access to his ro3^al father's crown and regiment
of his native kingdom." Alderman Smith was the first of
the two delegates named. With them are associated Sir
Maurice Eustace, Lord Chancellor, and {"450 was votsd by
the city to support their embassy.
In 1662 Ormonde came back Duke and Lord Lieutenant.
At the Spring Assembly of 1663, Coolco had been elected
Mayor, but the summer meeting ixsohnd that "being
sensible of tlie very great confusion of the years past, they
deemed it necessary tliat an able, loyal, well-experienced
person should be chosen, and one well known to the present
Governor of this Kingdom." And " finding that the Duke
of Ormonde and Council have a desire that Alderman
William Smith should undertake the Mayoralty for the
ensuing year," he was elected, for the sixth time, to hold to
G
82 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Michaelmas, 1664. Alderman Cooke was permitted to resign,
but as he did so to meet the wishes of the Duke, he was
given standing as if he had served, and his expenses in pre-
paring for ofhce. Smith being granted 1(^400 to maintain his
dignity. During this, his sixth Mayoralty, he was chairman
of the committee which made the allotments and enclosure
of the great city common of St. Stephen's Green, and of that
appointed to conduct the petition to the Duke and to the
King for royal grants in aid of the distressed finances of the
city which bore fruit next year. At the Spring Assembly,
Sir Daniel Bellingham was elected Mayor, but praying to be
excused, Smith was yet again continued at Michaelmas, to
hold for his seventh Mayoralty to Michaelmas, 1665.
In this year Ormonde presented the weighty petition to
the King which evoked a most gracious reply from Whitehall,
acknowledging the eminent merits and services of the city
to his father and to himself at the restoration, and contem-
plating the great poverty to which tlie city was reduced by
loyalty, Charles announces " his royal judgment to confer
such favours as may deliver to posterity for their honour
the gracious sense we have of their services, merits, and
sufferings." These consisted of a grant of the ferries of the
Liffey so valuable then when there was only one main
bridge, and a perpetual grant of £500 a year to the Mayor,
to be paid from the Civic list, he further forgives the crown
rents then due and reduces them permanently to ;/^20 a
year.
One of Smith's last official acts this year was to read the
city petition to the crown against the merchants of London,
who, with banal selfishness, were seeking power from the King
to ban Dublin and Ireland from its trade with the Canaries,
whither the petition states Ireland was then sending feeding
commodities of the best vend, for which a fleet was then
freighted by the city merchants. Bellingham was now
obliged to take the Mayoralty ; but in the last days of the
tenure, Smith had a letter from the Duke referring to a
charter of Charles I. in 1641, whicli had not been acted on
by which the title of Lord Mayor had been conferred on the
OPENING TO END OF CHARLES II.'s REIGN 83
Chief Magistrate. The Assembly before which Smith hiid it,
resolved that this would be for the honour and good of the
city, and so Sir Daniel Bellingham and not Smith became
first Lord Mayor of Dublin, yet these two years of office
were not without honour, for in these he wore the Cap of
Maintenance and the splendid collar of S.S. which Charles
had sent the city immediately on his restoration, and he was
colonel of the first city regiment of foot.
It might now be though his civic life had ended, especially
as the odious intrigues of the Cabal ministry shortly after
effected the recall, and brought about the political fall of
of his great patron, Ormonde.
Nevertheless after the Cabal had been broken, and Lord
Berkeley, its representative in the Irish Government re-
moved, and Essex sent as viceroy to restore order in Dublin,
Smith once again was summoned to the civic chair, just ten
years after he had last left it. If he heard the bells of Christ
Church chiming. '-Turn again, William Smith, Lord ]\Iayor
of Dublin," it was not to come back as a turncoat, but to com-
plete his career of loyalty, consistancy and good faith. He
was now old and impoverished ; his rent to our Hospital
for his own allotments in Stephen's Green was in arrear ten
years, and for this he could only assign his allotment in
Oxmantown as portion of the site of our original edifice, yet
he managed to contribute £20 to the building fund, but his
unparalleled career, as he opened for the first time, the
assembled school in 1675, is a contribution to our annals
richer than a large pecuniary subscription. Born in 1602,
his life links our story with the spacious days of great
Elizabeth. He was one of our most deligent governors,
presiding at all the eleven meetings of his Mayoralty, and
he ended his days with as the only intern governor we have
ever had, for now poor and old the Board in 1679, directed
that he should have such lodgings in the Hospital as he shall
make choice of in the upper story of the south isle, lie to
undertake the government of the house and trouble of keep-
ing the children in order. And so he ruled to his death in
1684, a little before our founder, Kmg Charles.
84 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
In 1675 the Hospital acquired what proved to be its
richest single endowment, the fee simple of the lands of
Nodstown, in the parish of Ardmayle, and barony of Nether-
cross, County Tipperary, situate near Cashel. adjoining the
Suir, and then including more than eight hundred acres
chiefly of prime land. This gift to the Hospital was the
outcome of a domestic romance, in which the female element,
of course, prevails. Mr. Gyles Martyn had acquired this
estate a few years before from one John Upton, who held
under patent from the Crown, and thus becoming a landed
proprietor, was anxious to transmit it to his heirs. But Mrs.
Martyn was childless. She had a sister, however, who was
not so, and when the next confinement was expected, Mrs.
Mart5m, in league with her, feigned pregnancy, and in due
tim.e, presented her sister's babe to her husband, Gyles, as
his veritable son and heir, to the supposed father's delight. 5
And thus Nodstown would have gone to this child, but that
the lady conspirators quarrelled, and the angry sister dis-
closed the truth to Martyn. In rage and disgust, he went to
his law3'ers, and thereupon executed a deed, granting the
whole estate, in trust, for King's Hospital. Mrs. Gyles
Martyn sliortl}^ after died, childless, and the widower marry-
ing again, had a numerous family, some of whom vainly
endeavoured to recover the estate. The grant to the
Hospital reserved to the Martyn family the nomination of
six boys to the school perpetually. Martyn's son, many
years after, petitioned the Corporation for some redress, as
the family had sunk into poverty in the revolutionary
troubles of James II. The rents of Nodstown were then
small, but the Corppration voted him an annuity of twenty
pounds a' year, and after his death, on a petition of his
mother, Gjdes Martyn's widow, in 1702, asking a grant in
lieu of the nomination of boys, the Assembly granted her
thirty pounds on those conditions ; but it is satisfactory to
find that nominations by the Martyn family were always
honoured afterwards, so long as they were sought for. The
action taken by the city, in this Martyn case, was b}/ the
^ Whitcl?.w's History of Dublin by Walsh, Vol. I., 573.
OPENING TO END OF CHARLES II.'s REIGN 85
Co rpora tii-n it<' IT. ;iii(l imt by the Governors, and illustrates -i-.
t he imioi i_bul\VL'rii ^^clwul and city in this period.
Through all tin- « Imh- ^ and chances of Irish land tenure,
Nodstown has remained with us, its presentjrental is over
/400 a year. The rise and fall of its rents and land value in
alMtusTime has reflected the varying economic and political
conditions of the country, and the estate has afforded strik-
ing examples of the mismanagement to which lands are often
exposed when the owners are corporate bodies, obliged to
depend entirely on their agents, and living at a long distance ^
for, till the railway times, it was as far a cry from Dublin to
Cashel, as now from Dublin to Canada. The acreage under the
crown patent was 888. Of these two-thirds were superior land,
the residue adjoining the Suir was swampy and then unproiit-
able. When granted to the Hospital it was under a long lease
to one, Leary, at a rent of less than £100. In 1724 this lease
was renewed by the governors, the acreage stated been 607
only ; the figures are over an erasure, and the map to which
it refers, has been abstracted, so that it is hard to escape
suspicion of some foul play, though, perhaps, the tenant
may have insisted on excluding the unprofitable acres ; that
would not, however, have conferred those acres on him, and
a nearly contemporaneous entry gives the contents as 703.
This confusion \vas made the subject of adverse comment
before the Commission on Educational Endowments in
1856, when Mr. Mallet, then an eminent citizen and active
governor, indignantly complained of the neglect by which a
large part of that valuable estate had been lost. He de-
scribed his personal visit to Nodstown, where he found a
deep trench severing the river side portion from the rent
paving land. This portion had then been reclaimed, and
was in the ownership of the brilliant Irish j)arliamentary
orator, Richard Lalor Shell, and the title under the Statute
of Limitations could not be assailed ; though had steps been
taken in due time, the tenant could have been debarred from
any claim founded on encroachment on the adjoining waste
lands of his landlord. We have not, however, great reason
to lament, for as shewn in a subsequent page, this estate
I
86 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
became immensely enhanced in the latter years of the
eighteenth centmy.
The old Duke of Ormonde had, in 1677, been reinstated
as Lord Lieutenant. He was to the end the constairtlriend
of the Hospital. For seven successive years he had con-
tributed /loo towards its maintenance. In 1676, whilst he
was still in London, Sir John Temple, then Solicitor-General
in Ireland, wrote to the Lord Mayor, his old protege, William
Smith, that at the instance of the Duke, His_Majesty the
King, had consented to provide a yearly endowment for the
School, to which. Smith replying with the grateful thanks of
the Corporation, asks His Excellency to secure that the
grant may be placed on the Civil List.'' That, however, was
overcharged by the poor King now, and it was nearl^^^tw©
years after that Ormonde obtained in the Privy Council the
foitowing Order, which places the Hospital in relation to the
Church and State, on the level of the great cathedral which
Sir Christopher Wren was then erecting, and which has
proved a large source of revenue for some generations ; it is
here set out in full 7 : —
By the Lord Lieutenant and Councell.
Ormonde. Whereas, we, the Lord Lieutenant, are given
to understand that his Majestie, taking notice of the great
expenses the Bishops of England are now usually at in
making of Feasts at their Consecrations, did think fitt that the
making thereof for the future should be forborne, and that
the Bishops at their Consecrations, should, in lieu thereof
respectively pay fifty pounds towards the building of the
Cathedral Church of St. Paul. And, whereas, it is observed
that the Archbishop and Bishops in this kingdome, doe,
usually upon their respective Consecrations, make great
Feasts. Now, we, the Lord Lieutenant and Councell in
imitation of what is done in England, as aforesd., do think
fitt hereby to recommend it to such Archbishops and Bishops
as hereafter shall be consecrated, that they forbear putting
themselves to any expense for a Feast upon their Consecra-
tions, but that, in lieu thereof, they will pay to the governors
of the King's Hospital, lately built, near the Citty of Dublin,
8 Minute Book, p. 76. ''' Minute Book of King's Hospital
OPENING TO END OF CHARLES II.'s REIGN 87
the sum of thirty pounds for the use of the said Hospitall
which we look upon to be a most commendable act and less
chargeable to the said Archbishops and Bishops than the
ffeasts. Given at the Councell Chamber, Dublin, the 7th
day of March, 1678-9.
Mich., Armagh, John, Dubhn, Arran, Hen. Midensis, ■
Robt. Fitzgerald, Carey Dillon, Chas. Meredyth, Jno. ,
Bysse, Jo. Davys, 01. St. George, Jo. Cole, Richd. /
Gething, Theo. Jones, Wm. Fflower.
We had good friends on the Council who gave this boon,
the Primate Boyle, Lord Chancellor, already a benefactor,
John, Dublin, is Dr. John Parker, just appointed Arch-
bishop, in his stead ;i Ix infactor too, Earl of Arran, is
Richard, brother of Ossory, and who was n ow Lord De puty
in his father, Ormonde's, absence shortly after. Chief Baron
Bysse was one of our founders, Davys was Secretary of State,
a brother of our Recorder, now Chief Justice ; Sir Charles
Meredyth had negociated the affair at Whitehall, Carey
Dillon was uncle of the poet, Lord Roscommon, whom he
succeeded as fifth Earl, and was our neighbour in Oxman-
town.
This Order had no actual legal sanction, but the word of
the Privy Council was law in those days, and the practical
sanctiorrwas'"that all future bishops were appointed by the
crown on the faith of it. Though the aggregate of the pay-
ments made under it is very large as the then great number
of bishoprics led to continuous promotions and vacancies,
many bishops from time to time without daring to repudiate
the obligation, kept the governors dunning them for years,
and once or twice compelled them to apply to Government
for a renewal of the ordinance, but the majority paid with
alacrity. The second sum ever paid was by our friend Dr.
Wettenhall on his consecration to the See of Cork.
In 1677 the governors obtained under the will of Mr.
Ratcliff, the lay impropriator of the tithes of Mullingar, the
valuable gift of the rectorial tithes in fee simple, our entry
states they were estimated at ;irioo per annum. Through
all the changes in Church Law since, this gift has remained
8S FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
to us, in part, at least, to the present, for the rights of the
lay tithe owners were preserved by the Disestablishment
Act of 1869. The usage then was to farm out the tithes
for terms of years at rents to lessees who collected the tithes
from the land occupiers, and our records for a century and
half are replete with entries showing how those rents varied
with the conditions of the country from time to time. The
lay impropriators held under the same obligation to the
parishes which had bound the ecclesiastical bodies and
monasteries who had first appropriated the parochial tithes
before Henry VIII. captured and distributed them at
pleasure to laymen. The obligation was original^ to provide
for the cure of souls, but this was often compounded for by
a fixed sum or modus to maintain the fabric of the chancel
of the Church. This later charge was imposed on our
governors frequently. In 1682 the Board have a missive
from Arthur, second Viscount Granard, stating that the
chancel of Mullingar is ^'ery much out of repair, and asking
them to arrange with his father-in-law, Sir George Rawdon.
Accordingly, the Lord Mayor, Sir Humphrey Jervis, there-
upon agreed with Sir George that £20 in full should be paid
over to the Bishop of Meath to cover the repairs. This Lord
Granard was a distinguished soldier, he commanded the i8th
Old Royal Irish, and served under Turenne, but proving a
Jacobite, was dismissed by William III. Sir George Rawdon
was ancestor of the Earl of Moira and Marquises of Hastings.
The Bishop of ]\Ieath was the famous xAnthon}^ Dopping who
became an historical personage afterwards.
The division of functions of Chaplain and Master broke
down, and in the end of 1680 Mr. Prytherck's chaplaincy
ceased. The Rev. Benjamin Colquitt was appointed under
a very strict order, which is noticeable as showing the purely
I denominational character of the foundation, and because
I its enforcement often caused trouble, notably when Dean
I Swift compelled its observance in 1731. The chaplain and
1 headmaster is carefully to instruct the boys in English and
I Latin, and every morning read Divine Service at 10 o'clock,
and at 4 o'clock in summer, and 5 o'clock in winter in the
OPENING TO END OF CHARLES II.'s REIGN 89
Hospital Chapel ; he shall caiefully instruct them in the
catechism of the Church of England, and examine them
publicly thereon every Sunday after evening prayer, also in
the chapel, and shall preach in the chapel at least once each
month, he shall constantly reside in the Hospital and bring
therein neither wife or child, but may choose one or two of the
children to attend him in his chamber. For this his ^salary
is £40 a year with full maintenance, and he is to have James
Mead as his usher in teaching. 8
It is curious to find Latin in the curriculum of such a
School, but the old Free School had trained great scholars.
The governors had, however, early and wisely resolved that
none be put to learn the Latin tongue " but such pregnant
youths as they shall from time to time approve, and not
before they can first write and cast accounts very well.
Luke Lowther was Lord Mayor and our chairman when this
order passed. He seems to have been a disciplinarian, for
at the time, he ordered that one alderman and a sheriff's
peer should attend him every week to see that the children
had a due proportion of victuals, and to inspect the steward's
account's ; and he issued a curfew order for locking all
gates and wickets at given hours, eight, nine and ten
o'clock, according to the time of year, the steward to keep
the keys all night, and bells to ring a quarter before each,
curfew hour. And Sir Humphrey Jervis, his successor,
followed his steps with an ordei which illumines the then
state of discipline, " that Mrs. Hollins and Mrs. Draper,
widows, with their children and servants, and all belonging
to them, do depart the house, and that such of the Nurses and
other the servants that are married, be forthwith removed,
and no servant for the future be entertained but who are
single, and that this house be not encumbered with any that
shall not be useful and serviceable to it, and that all such in
the Hospital as have a key for the street door do bring in
said key to my Lord Mayor, and no one else to have one save
porter all day, and steward at night.
8 Minute Book, p go, 20 March, 1681, 21 February, 1686.
x/^
go FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Essex Bridge.
Jervis was chairman for two years, being chosen Lord
Mayor for 1682 and 1683 an original founding governor,
he so remained for thiity-six years, to his death in Queen
Anne's reign. A large ship-owner and merchant, he
amassed a fortune, and founded a family. Though one
of the chief city magnates, he was for years embroiled
with his colleagues, but he was one of the makers
of Dublin, and this with his high services on our Board,
may excuse the following esipode, especially as it has
not been, we believe, told in detail before. He was Pontifex
Maxinms here, for after the centuries in which the Liffey
was crossed by a single bridge, he built two, Essex or Grattan,
and Ormonde, now known as the Four Courts bridge, by
which alone the city was able to spread over the prairies of
Mary's Abbey and wastes of Oxmantown. Keen as was the
need, these bridges were no project of the civic authorities,
erected rather in spite of their fierce opposition, for they
were mainly interested in the house property within the walls
now enhanced by the very need of expansion, and they eyed
with sore jealousy the opening of the north side. The quairel
lasted twenty years aftei the bridges were up, in the course
of which Jervis was imprisoned, and, if he is to be
believed, half ruined, with the martyrdom which often befalls
reformers. The story has some comic features, for it would
seem that though he posed as a philanthropist, J ervis's motives
were quite as personal as those of the monopolists he opposed,
and it throws humourous light and shade on the doings of
those days. The merits are somewhat obscure as the records
of the Privy Council were lost by the fire in the Bermingham
Tower in 171 1, but they may be fairly judged by a com-
parison of the Case presented to the Irish Commons in 1695,
with the Answer of the city and the decision of the house.
Sir Humphrey petitioned Parliament in August, 1695,
setting forth his doings and praying pecuniary relief. The
claim was afterwards embodied in his " Case," which tells
how, in 1675, Lord Lieutenant Essex made order for build-
OPENING TO END OF CHARLES II.'s REIGN 91
ing Essex Bridge, and assigned a fund for same, appointing
five overseers, of whom Sir Humphrey was one, all of whom,
save he, began to make excuses, whereupon His Excellency
" Deeming the work necessary for the Public Government,"
persuaded him to assume the duty alone, and encouraged
him with a donation of £100, promising to fmd money for
the completion.
Lord Essex is thus the founder and true eponymus of
the bridge. Henry Grattan and the Grattan's had never
anytliing to do with it.
He proceeded, he tells, with all imaginable diligence, but
Lord Essex unhappily went away before the work was
half done. Ormonde came back in 1677, and Sir Humphrey
petitioned his Grace in Council for means to complete. He
had, he says, only a verbal reply that there was little money
in the Treasury, but if he proceeded, he would be honourably
dealt with. On completing the bridge in 1678, his accounts
were passed in the Privy Council, who reported his expenses
in excess of his receipts as £1,407, which he had had to
borrow, paying interest ever since , he repeatedly asksd pay-
ment from Government, but never could get any satisfactory
answer.
He tells how, at this time, the north bank was laid out
in lots for projected streets, and that the Duke learning that
the plans showed the reres of the houses and warehouses
facing the river without any quay, the Council appointed
Sir John Cole, Sir George Rawdon, and Sir Oliver St. George,
baronets, to persuade him, Sir Humphrey, to front the
houses to the river, " with a quay for the greater beauty and
ornament of the city "; this, he told them, would cost him
£1,000, but he would comply if recommended to the King
for his balance. So he made the embankment which was
named Ormonde Quay from the Duke, with the Market
behind similar^ named. Still he could get no satisfaction,
though the convenience of the bridge, he says, is worth ten
■"times the cost.
But his foes were not content with his being unpaid.
The bridge had been formed with a drawbridge to allow the
92 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
crafts to pass to and from the existing Wood and Merchant
Quays, with two houses on the north bank foi the keepers.
In 1684 the city magistrates, he says, egged on the
masters of ships and gabbards to Petition the Privy Council
against him foi not having men, night and day, to raise the
drawbridge, and the Lord Mayor and Corporation appeared
to support the charge. His plea was that he had built the
two houses on his own land, and for seven years had given
them rent free to the bridge keepers, but when unable to
obtain his balance, he thought himself entitled to take these
houses to his own use. As, however, he had charged the
cost of these to the bridge account, the Duke and Council,
were, he says, " exasperated to that degree,'' that they
ordered him forthwith to make over the houses by deed to
the city. He offered to do this on condition that the draw-
bridge was changed to an arch, and that the houses should be
restored to him, but the Council peremptorily ordered him
to assign within forty days. His lawyer told him the decree
was illegal (probably it was), so he petitioned the Council,
assisted in this, he says, by Sir John Temple, the Master of the
Rolls, this petition was rejected, and he was summoned
again.
The Duke was now in England, and Boyle, now Lord
Primate and also Lord Chancellor, sat at the hearing as Lord
Justice, there was no prosecutor, but the despotic prelate
bid him obey the former decree or answer at his peril. Then
by the advice of counsel, he petitioned again, pra\'ing that
the city should be left to prove their rights in a court of law,
but, if we can believe him, the spirit of the Star Chamber
was not yet dead. The new petition was held a contempt,
and on 23 December, 1685, the pursuivant arrested him in
bed, and lodged him in prison, and the primate refused him
leave even to go to church on Christmas Day.
The results, he says, were disastrous. His city foes
spread reports that he was broke ; his credit was destroyed.
He was a large owner of ships. One, the " Dubhn, was then
chartered for Lisbon to Bartholomew Van Homrigli
(Vanessa's father). On the rumour of his ruin, John Hayes,
OPENING TO END OF CHARLES II.'s REIGN 93
the captain, absconded with the " Dubhn " and her freight,
with a total loss to Jervis of £2,200. Following suit, his
factor in the "Virginias," ran away with /i,6oo worth of
tobacco. Then, Thomas Stretton, master of the " Catherine,"
ran away with her and a cargo of iron worth ;^5oo, whilst
Stephen Simmons, her master, similarly abducted the " Mary,"
value ;^6oo ; and his goods in places abroad, were seized by
his creditors. Then losses like Antonio's in the Merchant
of Venice " enough to press a royal merchant down," reached
£7,000, a terrible disaster in those days.
Of Ormonde Bridge, the " Case '' states, that the city
grand jury presented a timber bridge from the upper end of
Wood Qua}', at Winetavern Street, to the upper end of the
Pill, and assessed £400 on the city for this. Owing to the
opposition, however, this assessment was respited, but Sir
Humphrey persevered and built the bridge at his own ex-
pense of over /500. The enemy then thrice presented the
bridge as a nuisance in the King s Bench, and would have
pulled it down if the judges had not vacated the presentments.
Then they combined not to pay the assessment, of which
£20 only was ever raised. Sir Humphrey bluntly attributes
this combination to Sir John Davis, then Secretary of State,
whom he roundly charges with influencing his brotlier. Sir
William, now Cliief Justice, to refuse him j ustice on his appeal
to the King's Bench. The motive assigned gives delightf'il
point to the charge of corruption. Sir John, he says, joined the
opposition, not because he w^as averse to the connection of
south and north, but because he was himself negotiating to
buy the new Ormonde Market, whiclr he would get much
cheaper in the agitation, and this was seen afterwards, for
when Sir John's purchase was completed, he procured a new
presentment in his brother's court for a stone bridge in lieu
of the timber, with power to appropriate Sir Humphiey's
displaced materials, and this was hated by the court. This
charge, ho\^ever, needs higher proof than Jervis's asser-
tion.
Sir Humphrej^'s " petition " came before a Committee
of the Whole House of Commons in October, 1695, Their
94 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
report was adopted, finding £1,407 partly due to Jervis for
Essex, and £380 for Ormonde Bridge, and, allowing him ten
year's interest, declared him entitled to £3,434 in all, to be
raised by a tax of one shilling per ton on all coal entering
Dublin, and they ordered the heads of a bill to be drawn
accordingh' for approval of the Privy Council in England.
But this bill, transmitted to London under Poyning's
Law, was rejected by the Council, on the ground that it
proposed to put a duty on the products of England." Nothing
is said of its imposing a duty on the consumers in Ireland.
The proposal was, curiously, exactly that adopted by Sir
M. Beach, when Chancellor of the Exchequer, as one of the
aids for the South African War. The result, perhaps, shows
that the veto under Poynings Act, was sometimes salutary.
So Sir Humiphrey came to Parliament again in 1697,
and a Special Committee reported in August that £3,434
was justly due, and that it was highly just and reasonable
to take speedy steps for payment. But the city was now
in arms : they claimed to be heard by counsel concerning
Jervis's demand of a tax for building the bridges. This was
conceded. His case was answered by " the Case of the city
of Dublin," caustic and pungent with humour, conscious or
not. It exposes the springs of Sir Humphrey's patriotism
showing how, before the bridges were built, the sites of
Ormond Quay and the New Market were wastes, the passage
of the river being by ferries, yielding large rents to the city,
when Sir Humphrey, with his partners, bought twent}' acres
of the wastes and laid them, out in twent3/-eight building
lots, which, without bridges, tliey could turn to no account ;
he tlicn, say the city opponents, set himself, first to get
the leave of the city, and then to provide a fund. This was a
difficult matter for the river belonged to the city, and as
the case naively adds, " the improvement of tlie north side
would certainly, in a great measure, ruin the old city, whose
inhabitants were always on their guard to discountenance
and prevent it." The Grand Jury, indeed, presented for a
bridge, but this, the city says, was because Alderman Peter
^ See Journal of House of Commons. i
OPENING TO END OF CHARLES II.'s RETGN 93
Wybrants, the foreman of the jury, lived on the north side
of the water. The next thing was to get the money, so first
Jervis accosts his partners but they would only subscribe
£250 or /lo per lot ; so he then approaches the Lord Lieu-
tenant, telling him his undertaking would be very splendid,
that the bridge would be called Essex Bridge with the Earl's
arms set up there, and the street beyond, a large noble one,
called Capel Street, which should perpetuate his memory.
On this the Earl gave him a £100. Like compliments he
used with the Ormonde family, calling the em.bankment
Ormonde Quay. He now, they say, thought himself strong
enough to practice with the city of which he was a sworn
freeman.
The Government shortly before had granted the city
the customs of the city gates, reserving, however, the income
for the first seven years. The greater part of these he induced
Lord Essex to assign him for the bridge fund, whicli, in
seven years, should be worth ^^2,000, enough to build the
bridge. Impeaching his accounts, the case tells, how, in
1690, Sir Humphrey was committed by the Lords Justices
for receiving money from papists, for certifying they had
taken the Oath of Allegiance, which they had, in fact, re-
fused to take. Thrice indicted for this in the King's Bench,
he was fined on his submission, £200 ; in view of the balance
still due him the fine was remitted, and the city therefore
say it is just and reasonable that this /200 should be deducted
from his balance. And as to his two bridge houses his claim
should be reduced, for he had charged them in the bridge
accounts, yet retained them still for himself.
" To move your compassion," the city case goes on,
" Sir Humphrey tells 3^ou a long (but not a true) story about
his being imprisoned by the Lord Primate for petitioning
that the city should be left to the law. as to its title to the
houses, and how he was taken and kept close prisoner on
Christmas Day, and how his confinement ruined his credit,
and made five masters of his ships run away with them, and
several other terrible things happened him ; but had he
justly told his case, it would have appeared, he was justly
96 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
committed for preparing a petition in which were several
expressions reflecting on the Government ; that he was in the
pursuivant's hands only from the 24th to 28th December, and
then, on his asking pardon, was discharged, " his confine-
ment being only during the holidays when no exchange was
open or business done, so that part of his case is rather a
libel on the Lord Primate and the Council than anything
else."
As to Ormonde Bridge, the city urges that this project,
too, was for Sir Humphrey or his partners' own private ad-
vantage, the presentment being obtained during his
mayoralty against the consent of the city, as proved by their
presenting it as a nuisance. They charge him with procur-
ing his second year of office, and using his power to drive
the markets from the old city mto his new grounds, im-
prisoning many for continuing the antient markets until he
had ruined these.
The city case concludes by suggesting that if Sir Humphrey
is to be re-imbursed it should not be at the cost of the city
which had lost its ferries, its markets, and half its rents
whereon the wastes across river now yielded a hundredfold.
" Hard," they say, " it would be to cause several bridges to
be built over the Thames, and then to order the charges to
be paid by the watermen of London. If Sir Humphrey is to
have this money that he cannot tell who owes him, we hope
it may be laid on those that reaped the benefit. For his deal-
ing with the papists about the Oath of Allegiance and his
false suggestions and reflections about his confinement, he
ought to be no object of compassion, and otherwise he has
no pretence."
Jervis lodged a reply. Admitting the north bank was
waste, he and his partners had paid £3,000 for this part of the
abbey lands, purchased from the Earl of Tyrone, but as the
sea overflowed a great portion, it cost several thousands to
wall in the strand and embank it with earth before an}- house
could be built. Further their purchase was after Lord
Essex's promise to provide a fund, and the Earl, persuaded
of its utility, had recommended Ormonde, his successor, to
OPENING TO END OF CHARLES II.s REIGN 97
procure money from London to finish. He concedes the
hostihty of the city, adding dryly " lest their rents for lodging
for gentlemen when they came from town should fail." As
to the customs of the city gates, he was obliged to lease them
out and then raise capital on the rents, so that they yielded
him only £900 in all.
His defence as to the Catholic oaths has historic interest,
emphasised by controv^ersies of the present day. The oath,
as he actually administered it, ran " you shall swear that
from this day forward you shall be true and faithful to
our Sovereign Lord and Lady, King William, and Queen
]Mary, their heirs and lawful successors, and faith shall bear
of lite, and members, and honour, and shall neither know
nor hear of any ill will or damage intended them that you
shall not defend, so help your God." The oath as it was said
he should have administered, it was : "I do sincerely pro-
promise and swear that I will be faithful and true allegiance
bear to their Majesties, King William and Queen Mary. So
help me God." He says his counsel advised that this oath,
though e nacted for England, was not made obligatory m
Ireland till 1691, so he traversed his indictment, but after-
wards. To save~charges, as he says, he submitted to a fine of
£200. No wonder he did so for he makes the fatal admission
that he was aware the word " allegiance " was not in the
oath as taken before him, but that many others so ad-
ministered it. As to this latter fact, he calmly adds :
" the papists were not aware of this, but thought he had
omitted the word 'allegiance' in favour to them," he
says nothing as to the charge of taking money for the
deception.
In proof of his loyalty he adds a paragraph quite refresh-
ing in its unconsciousness of any perfidy. How in the days
of King James and Tyrconnell, David Stuart, one of his
mariners, was commissioned by the King to carry a Captain
Shuttleworth to a gentleman in Wales, as he had previously
taken another secret emissary to Duke Powis. Stuart
informed Jervis that the Castle officials had, for three weeks,
been writing commissions for Shuttleworth to raise com-
H
98 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
motions in England, and that he, himself, was offered £24
to take Shuttleworth across channel. Sir Humphrey says
he told Stuart he was in danger to be hanged if the Govern-
ment changed, yet advised him to save himself by accepting the
employment, first getting his -{24 in hand, to leave this ivith his
wife, but, on landing, to get Shuttleivorth arrested and his papers
seized. Tliis was done. Shuttleworth, with all his com-
missions, was carried to London, and many men of note were
lodged in the Tower and Newgate. " If," he adds, " Stuart
had discovered, Jervis has certainly been hanged." That
was true enough when Dick Talbot ruled. Sir Humphrey,
however, was addressing the Williamite Parliament.
The cause was heard before a Committee of the Whole
House on six several days in September, 1697.^" Their report
retreats very far from their former finding of -{3,434, for
they now found £1,500 and no more to be a full satisfaction
and discharge for all Sir H. Jervis's demands. They evidently
considered that his personal interest in the bridge well
compensated his loss of interest on outlay, but that the
promises of Lord Essex on which he had acted made it fair
to repay him the principal. Yet even this would seem never
to have been paid him. The House referred it to a Committee
(they were very alert to do this) to provide a fund, but the
journals never show that it was raised, and in i6g8, we lind
Sir Humphrey once more knocking at the gates of Parliament.
Perhaps he got as much as he merited, for he left a large
.jfortune, and Jervis Street still pierces his twenty acres from the
river to Great Britain Street, where his descendents are still
the landlords of a considerable portion. His daughter, and sole
heiress, married Mr. White of Bally Ellis, and is ancestor of
the present baronet family of Jervis- White. Sir Humphrey,
himself, came from a Staffordshire stock, from which
descended Sir John Jervis, the famed Earl of St. Vincent,
who, with Nelson, broke the Spanish fleet in February, 1797.
Our Chairm.en from the foundation to King Charles's
death, were the Lord Mayors — 1767-8 Mark Ouin, 6S-9 John
'" Joiivnal of House of Commons.
OPENING TO END OF CHARLES II.s REIGN 99
Forrest, 69-70 L ewis Desmyn ieres, 70-1 Enoch Reader,
71-2 Sir John Tottie, 72-3 Robt. Decy, 73-4 Sir Jos. Allen, 74-5
Sir Fran. Brewster, 75-6 William Smith, 76-7 Chris. Lovett,
77-8 John Smith, 78-9 Peter Ward, 79-80 John Eastwood,
80-1 Luke Lowther, 81-2-3 Sir H. Jervis, 83-4 Elias Best,
84-5 Sir Abel Ranj .- Under these, beside the enclosures of
the (ireens and the two bridges, the evolution of Dublin
went on. In 1882 the vague shore between Queen Street
and the Duke of Ormonde's wall, at the present barracks
was granted to Mr. Ellis, on the terms of his forming the
quay which still bears his name, with a road behind to the
Park, then another road in the line of Barrack Street, to be
planted with trees for a citizens' walk alongside tlie line
Bowling Green, lately formed to the north, and which now
is merged in the playground of our present schools ; it then
lay west of the original school, and was still long known as
the Bowling Green after it had become ours ; all this was a
large accession to our vicinage. Then the quay was formed
from the Four Courts site, the Inns by the new bridge with
a market behind ever since bearing Ormonde's name, and
far eastward the slobs along the North Strand were allotted
from Mabbot's Mills, still marked by Mabbot Street. South
of the river, the Wood Quay was extended to Essex Bridge
in line of a slushy shore called the Blind Quay, and the Dam
and point at Dames Gate, south of the creek were covered.
Behind the Green and the Hoggen ]\Iount was a recreation
ground called Tib and Tom, which w^as now pierced with
William Street by Mr. Williams, under treaty wdth the city ;
and wlicre the Theatre Royal now stands, Mr. Hawkins,
under similar treaty, built a wall to protect his houses on
Lazie Hill (Townsend Street), but still leaving the tides to
flow round it over the site of Westmoreland Street to the
strand of Fleet vStreet. And all this time the old city towers
were disappearing, first let to private persons and then to be
trampled in the march of reform. Fair Isoult's Tower by
Essex Street went down in 1681."
'' With regard to the question asked in Chapter I , page 13, as to Isoult
and the Arthurian Legend, the following surmise is ventured ; — The
100 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Arthurian Legend, as it now survives, lives in the Morte D'Avthiiv oi Sir
Thomas "Malorv, written tempore Edward I\'. Here La Belle Iseult is
daughter of Anguish (Angus) King of Ireland, who claimed to take "truag? "
or toll from the Cornish King, and sent his brother-in-law, Sir Marhans, to
enforce the claim by knightly battle fiom King Mark of Cornwall. Mark's
nephew, the j'oung Sir Tristram of Lyonesse (South Cornwall), as his
champion, fought Sir Marhaus, and wounding him fatally, Sir Marhaus
returned to Ireland to die with a splinter of Tristram's sword in his skull.
He had given Tristram a wound which was said to be poisoned and
could only be cured in the country whence Sir Marhaus came. So Tristram,
changing his name to Tramtrist,came to Ireland to the Court of King Anguish,
was cured, won favour, fell in love with the beautiful Iseult, and she with
him. Once and again he returned to Ireland, and took awa}^ Iseult to be
the wife of his uncle, King Mark, but they never forgot their first loves ;
she left the Court with Tristram and lived with him in Joycitse Gai'd'\ whilst
he still wrought as Knight of Arthur's Round Table, second in glory to Sir
Launcelot only. Now Malory tells us he took his Morte D'Arthitr from
the tales and songs of the French Trouveres or Troubadours, at their acme,
in the times of the Crusades, whose knights came from all Western Europe ;
thus the Troubadours drew from the traditions and myths of many ages
and many lands, and copiously from the bardic relics of Wales, Cornwall,
and Armorica, or Brittany, colonised by the Celtic Britons, driven westward
b}' the Saxons and called Lesser Britain by Malory. In the sixth century,
and after, Wales had close connexions with Ireland through St. Bridget,
and St. David, who is said by Geoffry of Monmovxtli, writing in the
time of the Crusades, to have been the nephew of King Arthur, with
Caerleon on Usk as his first See, which he changed to Alenevia, thence
called St. David's, by St Bride's, or Bridget's Bay. This connection was
revived at the Plantagenet Conquest by Giraldus Cambrensis and Strong-
bow's companions of South Wales. Following these was Sir Armoricus
Tristram, who, with his brother-in-law, De Courcy, captured Howth in
1177, and became its lirst Lord. He, with De Courcy, was knighted at
Rouen tempore Richard Coeur de Lion, and he took the name St. Lawrence.
He was slain with his thirty knights in Connaught by O'Connor, King of
Ireland, and his sword has traditionally hung in Howth Castle for nearly
six centuries and a half. Is he not Sir Tristram de Lyonesse, and have we
not here the germs of the Romance of Tristram and Iseult, which forms a
full fourth of the Morte FT Arthur :' Is the sword at Howth that which
was shivered in the skull of the Irish knight ? Armoricus seems to point
to Armorica and Brittany. I can find no suggestion of this in Dr. Somner's
exhaustive "searches" after the origin of the Arthurian epic, but it is
pleasant even to dream of a connection of Old Dublin with the Old Romance
which has inspired the genius of Spenser and Tennyson, and is now
enshrined for ever in the Idylls of the King.
lOI
CHAPTER V.
1685-T702.
TEMP. JAMES II. AND WILLIAM III.
In the years following the death of our royal Founder
the journal of the Hospital is rather jejune. It was not
now a favourite with the Government at the Castle. The
school work, however, went on as before. Sir Abel Ram
was Lord Mayor and Chairman in 1685, Sir John Knox in
1686, and Sir John Castleton in 1687, and several of the
original governors are still on the Board, including Sir
Josua Allen, Sir Humphrey Jervis, the two Desminieres,
Sir Francis Brewster and Enoch Reader, but none of the
distinguished co-opted governors seem to have attended.
In October, 1685, Mr. Benjamin Colquit resigned, and the
Rev. Nicholas Knight became Chaplain and Head-master.
His letters of presentation by the governors to Francis
Marsh, Archbishop of Dublin, pursuant to the Charter, are
inscribed in our minute book in Latin, quaint, if not
very classical. The Lord Mayor and Corporation style them-
selves, — Dominus Major, Vice Comites, et cives Civitatis
Dublin, indiubitati patroni Hospitii, of the late Lord King
Car. II., and they supplicate his Grace, whom they address
in the vocative, — Rcvcrcndissime Pater, to admit tlieir beloved
Nicholas Knight, clericum, to exercise all the duties in the
Hospital. Dei Verbi prcdicatoris, puerunique eniditoris.
Knight so continued up to May 1687, when " on his pre-
ferment," as our minute book runs, the Rev. Thomas
King became Chaplain and master in his stead. Of King we
hear more anon. In September, 1686, we have our first
entry recording trouble with our boys ; it gives a sample
102 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
of the summary discipline then in vogue. Some twelve
boys were detected in taking money out of the Hospital
poor box. It couldn't have been much, but Master Andrew
Roulston the ringleader, ran away for a week, and the others
for two days. So Roulston is condemned, " that as a terror
to the rest from falling into the like miscarriage, he be
to-morrow whipt in the great hall, in the presence of the
other boys, by the keeper of the Bridewell's servant, and that
he be stript of his Blew Coat, and be turned out of doors,
never to be admitted again." The other eleven are to be
admonished by the Chaplain, but the admonition is to be
endorsed by a whipping in presence of the school. By
what law the official aid of the Bride^^•ell keeper was thus
invoked does not appear.
In 1687 our minute book shows that there was no meeting
of the governors after September, or in the nine months
following, and in the three years and four months to May,
1691, five meetings only, being two each in 1688 and 1690,
and one in i68g. At these no school business seems to have
been done ; three deal only with one of our Endowments,
the Tythes of Mullingar, and two with a change in the agency
of the Hospital. And yet these meagre entries, closely
looked at, are, perhaps, the most interesting in all our annals,
for they disclose the connection of our school with one of the
greatest events in the history of England and Ireland,
the Revolutiron and reign of King James the Second. To
decipher the cryptogram, however, it must be read in the
light of the contemporary facts of the strange eventful story
as they affected Dublin, whose civic governors were our
governors too.
When King Charles died, in Februar^^ 1685, the
Protestant Corporation at once addressed the new King in
terms of almost servile loyalty, for passive obedience was
then taught almost as dogma in the Anglican Church.
Composed by Sir Richard Reeves the Recorder, and one of
our governors, the address blesses God for the accession of
" our only true and lawful sovereign whom we will ever
obev and serve with our lives and fortunes with an untainted
TEMP. JAMES TI. AND WILLIAM IIL, 1685-1702 103
allegiance, and with all obedience of your Majestie's most
humble and faithful and dutiful subjects." ^ The King's
iirst act in Ireland was to withdraw the venerable Duke
of Ormonde from the Lord Lieutenancy appointing Lords
Justices, and placing Richard Talbot, newly created Earl of
Tyrconnell in command of the army in Ireland, then
numbering some 8,000 men. This was ominous, but in that
year Tyrconnell seems to have confined his acts to the army,
for the King during spring was occupied in punishing his
enemies of the Rye House plot, in obtaining subsidies from
Louis XI\'., and in controlling the elections which returned
him a Parliament, of which eleven-twelfths were his own
devoted Royalists and Cavaliers ; and in the summer his
hands were full with the suppression of Monmouth's re-
bellion. His ministerial changes wliicli were drastic enough,
did not cause general alarm as in his first speech in the Privy
Council, lie^omised to uphold the Established Church.
The only symptom of a new policy in civic Dublin
which the City Rolls record this year, is a petition in November
of Roman Catholic citizens for their freedomes which the
Privy Council ordered to be heard b}^ the two Chief Justices,
Sir Wm. Davys, and Keating, the Chief Baron Henry
Hene, and Sir Richard Reynell of the Common Pleas. This
assembly, regarding — " as a matter of very great moment
which will influence all the Corporation in this citie," direct
that Counsel shall be retained for the hearing. The precise
nature of this petition or its result, we do not now know ;
but if any decision was pronounced by these high Judges,
it could not have been favourable to the Jacobite Govern-
ment, for had it been, it would surely have been used by
Tyrconnell when the question was raised acutely in the
following year ; and w^e know that next year Davys was
turned out of the King's Bench, and Hene from the
Exchequer, replaced by Nu gent as Chief J ustice, and Rice
as Chief Baron. -
But when after the Blood}' Assizes the King was paramount
he declared for a standing army and officered the new
' Gilbert's Calendar, 5, 356. - Lib. Muii.
T04 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
regiments, of which fifteen were raised in Monmouth's
rebelhon, with Roman Catholics discharged from taking
the statutory oaths. Then alarm spread, increased by the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in France in November,
so that when the King invited the Houses reassembled tliat
month to repeal the Habeas Corpus, and Riot Acts, he was
met with remonstrance, and, proroguing parliament he em-
barked on the fatal policy of Prerogative versus Law, sure
to lead as it did to his ruin. In the close of the year he
sent here as Lord Lieutenant his brother-in-law. Lord
Clarendon with Tyrconnell as Commander of the Forces.
Soon it proved that the Commander of the Forces was
commander of the Viceroy too. Clarendon was of the
moderate section in the Cabinet, supported by all foreign
powers, including Pope Innocent XL, Tyrconnell was leader
of the Forward section ; he passed over to Whitehall where
he remained till June, 1686, James's Chief Confidant and
Arch instigator of the^oUcy that scoffed at statutes. Hence
he directed the Government in the Castle, brow-beating and
undermining the Lord Lieutenant. In June Lord Clarendon
writes to the Corporation in obedience to the King's
commands in the previous March, stating that his Majesty,
being informed there was no law warranting the usage of
requiring Roman Catholics, seeking admission to the city
franchises and offices, to take the oath o^f supremacy, now
commanded, that not only should they be admitted freemen
on the simple oath of allegiance, but if when admitted they
were chosen to the Mayorality or any City office, their names
should be returned to the crown • — " That we may dispense
with the oath of supremacv." Tlie c}uestion of the legality
of this test in Ireland at that time, has not, we believe, been
lutherto fully examined, either by English or Irish historians,
and may be stated here. In England the law was explicit ;
there the Act of Supremacy, i Eliz. C. i, made the oath
obligatory on all candidates for office, ecclesiastical or
temporal. The Irish statute followed it in the next year.
A doubt, however, was raised in England as to w^hether the
oath could be enforced unless it was actually tendered,
TEMP. JAMES II. AND WILLIAM III., 1685-1702 105
and by an amending Act of 5 Eliz., the tenc^er of the oath
to all officials and professional men too, was made com-
pulsory with a death penalty in case of a second refusal to
take it. This amending act was not followed in Ireland,
where the sanction of the statute still remained doubtful.
Macaulay thinks the doubt well founded, and that
there was no enforceable test then in Ireland at all, herein dis-
agreeing with Archbishop King, who, in his Statement of
Ireland regards the doubt as Jesuitical, and the act had de
facto certainly been operative here ; for example, in i6o^,
Skelton elected ]\Iayor was superseded on declining to take
the Oath, and tlie Corporation had gone much further.
In 1678 the Assembly ordered that no one should thence-
forth be admitted a freeman, without first taking the Oath
of Supremacy. This was, indeed illegal for the Act of
Supremacy referred to officers only. Catholics usually
declined~The Oafh, as it abjured all ecclesiastical as well as
temporal authority outside the realm, and thus it was
practically an effective test, though many of them were in
fact admitted freemen, probably without any tender of
the Oath. But Lord Macaulay was, seemingly, not aware
that under the Acts of Settlement as mentioned above,
powers were given to the Government to make Rules and
Orders, having Statutory effect, for the regulation of Corpora-
tion, under which Lord Essex' Rules in 1672, commanded
the Lord Mayor to tender the Oath to all officers of the
Corporation, and the masters and wardens of the City
Guilds, whose refusal would entail disfranchisement, though
the Lord Lieutenant could give a dispensation in any special
named case. The Royal command in June was therefore
warranted as to the admission of freemen, but not legal
in giving a universal dispensation in respect to all officers
to avoid the statutory law. The fluttered Corporation
replied in terms of humility. They did not plead either
the statute of Elizabeth or their own order of 1678, tliey
yielded submissively as to the freemen of whom they said
there were already four or five hundred Catholics on the
^ Gilbert's Calendar, 2, 430.
To6 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
roll. But shocked at His Majesty's imputation of illegality
in requiring the Oath in the case of officers they pleaded the
rules of Lord Essex as binding on them. Little chance there
was for such a plea with Tyrconnell to whom the mention
of the Act of Settlement was the red flag of the taureador
to an angry bull, and when in England, the King in the
teeth of direct statute law was seizing colleges in Oxford,
and appointing Roman Catholic Deans to Anglican
Cathedrals. And yet had this plea been accepted the
Jacobite Government might soon have constitutionally
emancipated their co-religionists, for under the Act of
Settlement it was open to them to supersede the Rules and
Orders, and to enact new ones dispensing with the Oath of
Supremacy. But that would not suit the hot haste of James,
Bent on using his own dispensing prerogative wholesale.
So in July cam.e a letter from the Viceroy to the city, stating
that he was not satisfied with their explanation, and com-
manding immediate and implicit obedience in the King's
name. The Corporation, doubtless aware of what was
proceeding in England, did not dare to rejoin, and forth^^ith
directed that the Oath should no longer be tendered or
enforced.
"~^ Here was another chance for a moderate and progressive
change, but Tyrconnell would brook no delay. He com-
manded Sir John Knox, the Lord j\Iayor to admit to all
franchises and offices forthwith, and on his refusal he re-
sorted to his own more excellent way. Knox was a loyalist ;
in the previous May sitting, as Chairman of our Board he
had ordered that on St. James' day, the ist May in each
year a sermon should be preached in our Chapel of King's
Hospital, and that the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs and
Sheriffs' peers, and all other Governors should attend in
state in their gowns, and that new clothes should be pro-
vided for the blew boys. But this was not the loyalty
Tyrconnell wanted. Continuing his intrigues against
Clarendon in Dublin, and his brother Rochester, Primxe
Minister at Whitehall, he persuaded the King to dismiss
them both, and in February 1687, came back to the Castle
TEMP. JAMES II. AND WILLIAM III., 1685-1702 107
as \'iceroy himself, with the lesser title of Lord Deputy, but
with complete control over church, state and army.
One of his first steps was to withdraw the Royal Charter,
in Dublin and through Ireland, that stood in his way. Qim
Warranto s were accordingly issued from the Exchequer
where Stephen Rice now presided as Chief Baron, known
for h.is boast that he would drive a coach and si?<; through
the Act of Settlement, and from that court no writ of Error
to England lay as in the King's Bencli and Common Pleas
The dismay was general, hundreds of families crossed the
channel with Clarendon. The Dublin Corporation im-
plored the Lord Deputy for grace in vain, and sought to
appease him by hastening new admissions to tlie francliises.
The Qco Warrantos went on, but as some lumdred charters
were being suppressed the proceedings took some time,
and it was onlv in October that the King's new Charter for
Dublin was published. Then Sir Thomas Hackett became
Lord Mayor, Reeves was dismissed from the recordership
and replaced by Sir John Barnewell to whomi Reeves was
commanded to deliver The Whiie Book, containing the
ancient Charters and Customs, and all other records in his
custody. ■* Thomas Kieran and Edmund Kelly were named
Sheriffs, and so became governors of the Blue Coat : bv the
end of the year a^l the thirty sheriffs of Ireland were Rom.an
Catholics, save one, who was said to have been named in
mistake for a namesake. •''
Still it was necessary to form the lists of the new
burgesses, which were only complete in the spring of 1688.
Thus we can decipher the hiatus in our minute book,
showing no meeting of the Blue Coat Governors from
September 1687 to June 1688, as also the composition of
the Board which then met. Jamics this year had changed
his first idea of an alliance with the Church of England
against the Presbyterians and the sects to that of an
alliance against the Church of England with all the non-
conformists, whom he had hitherto assailed with the bitter
■• Gilbert's Calendar, 5, 464.
"See the list in King'::^ Stat'ineiii of Jrc/inuf, app. 52.
loS FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
hostility of which his angry refusal in 1686 to repeal the
act which made it death to attend a Presbyterian con-
venticle is but a single example.*^
He now declared it his desire to treat all denominations
with impartiality. Accordingly several of the old cor-
porators were now re-admitted, including Sir Josua Allen.
Sir Humphre}^ Jervis and Sir A.bel Ram, three of our former
chairmen, and Rartholmew Van Homrigh, then an eminent
Dutch mercliant of Dublin, whom we see admitted to the
new franchise in April 1688, with his little daughter, Esther,
Swift's Vanessa, then a child. This fair-play was, however,
only a semblance, for the Protestants were everywhere in
a powerless minority. At the Blue Coat Board, on 8th
June, Sir T. Hackett was chairman, and beside him,
William Dongan, Earl of Limerick, one of the five nobles
who had patents from James whilst still King of England.
He was a gallant soldier, and then in command of one of
Tyrconnell's new regiments of dragoons, as was his son of
another. They both fought bravely for Jam.es at the Boyne,
where the young man was slain. This Lord Limerick
merits a memory in Dublin, for with King James he was a
joint founder of the Workhouse in St. Jam.es' Street, our
original Poorhouse and basis of the South Dublin Union.
Its site was partly on Dongan's estate in the suburbs, and
partly on that of the King which was portion of the con-
fiscated lands allotted to him under the Act of Settlement.
They both assigned to the new foundation, the city adding
part of the city estate.^ On James's downfall his lands were
conferred on Lady Orkney and those of Lord Limerick on
General Ginkell, now Lord Athlone. Hereupon one Brian
Poole, Esquire, who had somehow got possession, finding a
difficulty raised by the forfeitures more Hibernico refused to
admit title, and it was only when the new city regime
obtained confirmations from Lady Orkney and Lord Atlilone
that possession was enforced, and the Workhouse restored.
With Lord Limerick, sat on the Blue Coat Board the new
" Macaulay's History of England, i, 374.
^ Gilbert's Calendar, 6, 218.
TEMP. JAMES II. AND WILLIAM III., 1685-1702 109
Sheriff, Kelly, and several of the new Aldermen, with several
of the old Governors, including Aldermen Ram and
Otterington. But it was futile to suppose that a Protestant
school under a clerical headmaster could be managed by
a predominently Roman Catholic Board. No scholastic
business was done at this meeting nor at that in the following
week, and no others were held in 1688. We find, indeed,
in October the Master of the new Workhouse in James's
Street, one good thing established by TyrconnelFs Govern-
ment, petitioning the Corporation to allow him "the clothing
of the Hospital boys," to be made by the workhouse inmates
who \A ere then set at weaving, but we know not if there was
any result.'^
But the King's forward policy was now moving blindlv
apace, until the seizure on Magdalen College in Oxford and
ejection of the Fellows, the bringing over Irish troops to
England, the wholesale dispensations under the second Declara-
tion of Indulgence, the trial of the Seven Bishops who refused
to proclaim it in their charges, and their acquittal, were
followed by the advent of William of Orange in November,
James's flight to France in December, and the election of
William and IMary as King and Queen. All Celtic Ireland
rose now in arms, fifty thousand regulars, fifty thousand
irregulars, with swords, pikes, scythes ; even many women
wielded skeanes. The gates of Derry were closed in Decem-
ber, and thither and to Enniskfllcn the Protestant population
fled as to cities of refuge, beleagured by the Irish Army till
the relief of Derry on ist July, 1689. And though after that
Ulster was safe, the wrath of the three other provinces waxed,
for James was now with them as their King, and the popula-
tion rose en masse. The Protestants were disarmed, hun-
dreds were imprisoned, thousands fled. Amongst these Sir
Josua Allen as mentioned above. These were no times for a
Protestant Corporation School in the city. In 1689 there
was only one meeting of the Blue Coat Board, at this Alder-
man aVicDermott, deputy Lord Mayor, presided, with Barne-
wall, the Recorder, Sir Thomas Hackett, and five other
^ Gilbert's Calendar, 5, 485.
no FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Aldermen ; the single item of business done reflected the
state of the country ; it was in July, when the army was still
before Derry, and the Governors had to deal with a petition
of Sir James Leigh to whom at the two meetings in 1688 they
had arranged for a lease of the Tythes of Mullingar, asking to
be relieved of his lease as he had been unable to collect the
tythes. This the Governors refused but offered if he paid the
arrears to abate the rent in the last half year. For the
Government was now in the deepest straits for monies.
Trnde being paralyzed, they must raise it or create it
anyhow. In the ten months after the relief of Derry the
factiousness of the English Parliament gave the Castle
and the Irish Parliament a free hand which the^^ used to
carry on the war. Then the King coined copper money,
making four pence worth legal tender for a sovereign and
seized on all property they could. Most Protestants wlio had
any and could do so escaped. Then by the Sullan Proscrip-
tion Act, known as the great attainder, they were ordered
to return forthwith on pain of being hanged and quartered for
high treason ; this they no more dared do than the French
emigrants dared return to Louis XIV. Sir Josua Allen, Van
Homrigh, and Otterington thus ceased to be Governors of
our school, and in November, 1689, Tyrconnell seized on our
Hospital and " turned out all the poor Blew Boys who were
still there to the number of sixty, with all the servants and
officers, and all the bedding goods and all the household stuff
which were carried away to the great Hospital at Kilmain-
ham (lately founded by Charles II.) for their wounded sol-
diers.'"' No funds were granted to the school by the new
regim.e, and up to this time it had been kept alive only by
subscriptions collected by Moland the steward and the chap-
lain, Thomas King ; the latter was now imprisoned and kept
there ten weeks, " for no other reason," as he says, " but to
disable him from attending the charge of the Hospital, and
out of malice, because Mr. Moland and he by borrowing
money and the charity of good Christians kept the Hospital
from dissolving till it was done by force."
^ Hospital Minute Book.
TEMP. JAMES II. AND WILLIAM III., 1685-1702 iii
There was a meeting of the Jacobite governors in January,
1690, and a final meeting in March, Terence M'Dermott,
Lord Mayor, in the chair, but these were held only to appoint
Thomas Hewlett as agent and steward in Moland's room, with
an order to the latter to deliver up the Charter and all the
books of laws, orders, property, and accounts, and Hewlett is
directed to take charge of all the outstanding debts and rents
of the endowments.
King William was now expected in Ireland, and Louis sent
over a French contingent of 7,000 men to the army of James^'^
then, as our minute book has it, " the Hospital was by King
James given to the French to be an hospital for their wounded
officers and soldiers, and so continued till the Rout of the
Boyne, then they hastily forsook the same, and the old
governors re-entering, found great quantities of linen and
bedding the French had left behind them, which the
governors intended to use in lieu of the household stuff
formerly taken away by the Lord Tyrconnell, but these
were ordered by the new Lords Justices to be removed to
the Hospital of Kilmainham.^^ For when W^illiam entered
Dublin on the morrow of tlie battle, the place was a
chaos, and was now occupied as a corn store for the
victorious army.
All things now changed ; the Ins were Outs and the dread
policy of Vae Victis which had raged three years swung to
the other side to harden into penal laws. Sir Chas. Porter
resumed as Chancellor, vice Fitton ; Reynell became Chief
Justice of the King's Bench, vice Nugent ; Sir Richard Pyne
of the Common Pleas, vice Keating ; and Hely, Chief Baron,
vice Rice. Our exiled governors returned, ^lotley became
Lord Mayor to September, succeeded then by Otterington,
\^an Flomrigh, who, as a Dutchman was persona "rata to
William, was made commissioner of the public revenues.
But it was not till May, 1691, the governors could meet in
the Blue Coat, and all was a scene of dilapidation still.
Allen and Ram, back from exile, were there, and several
'■'See Minute Book 21st Septembtr, 1694.
1^ Gilbert's Calendar, 5, iviii.
112 .FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
other displaced members : but the spirit of patronage is
strong in spite of ruins, the board had before them a letter
from Archbishop Francis Marsh of Dublin, also a late
refugee, and from Thomas Conyngsby, one of the new Lords
Justices, pressing for the appointment of Mr. Francis Higgins
as chaplain. Conyngsby, who had been member for Leo-
minster, and who Macaulay calls a busy and unscrupulous
Whig, had accompanied William and fought by his side at
the Boyne ; left behind at the Castle in high places of trust,
which it is said he abused. He was nevertheless ennobled
here, and afterwards advanced in the peerage in England. The
reply of the governors to these letters was that taking into
consideration the low estate and condition of the Hospital,
the Lord Mayor and Governors cannot, at present, maintain
a chaplain, nor is there as yet any occasion for such a person
to be employed therein.
In spring, 1692, the school being still uninhabitable, poor
Thomas King, our late imprisoned chaplain, wrote to the
Board, detailing his losses, as quoted above, and asking
some relief. The governors had then no assets available, but
they assigned over to him in lieu of his unpaid salary, the
£30 payable by Doctor William King, who had just been
consecrated Bishop of Derry, and who was his uncle. He, too,
had been imprisoned by Tyrconnell twice in the Castle, for he
was leader of the opposition and a fighting man. He was then
Dean of Christ Church, andon King William's entry he preached
the sermon in Christ Church in the King's presence. It is said
that when sending him to Derry, His Majesty, who seldom
joked, asked him what was the difference between them,
and the Bishop failing to answer the riddle, explained " you
are William King, but I am King William." We shall have
to refer to King again when Archbishop of Dublin and one
of our greatest governors. He now at once honoured our
assignment of the £30. He was generous to a fault, and is
noticed in our books as the only prelate who at this time
paid the ^^30 tax in lieu of consecration feasts.
It was not till April, 1692, the governors could appoint as
chaplain, Mr. Thomas Hemsworth; they were seeking to collect
TEMP. JAMES II. AND WILLIAM III., 1685-1702 113
their arrears and debt to rehabilitate the house, but owing
to the desolation of the country, they were forced to remit
much. There is an entry in May that the circumstances of
the several tenants in the late troublesome times, differ much
from each other, some being forced to fly from their habita-
tion, whilst others lived all the while in their houses and were
not sharers in the late calamities, and the agent is, therefore,
empowered, if it appear that their losses and suffering have
been great, to make an abatement as he shall think reason-
able, not exceeding one year and a half.
Though the Hospital was still in a wretched condition,
the governors, in July, brought back twelve of the children
expelled nearly three years before, and a few weeks after-
wards admitted twenty new boys. Big people again took
an interest in the School, one of the recommendations for
admission is by Sir Richard Reynell. and one by Lady
Porter, the Lord Chancellor's wife. Mr. Hemsworth, the
chaplain, was now appointed schoolmaster also, his salary
was slightly raised, though many of the arrears were now
pronounced desperate, and the Board were still struggling
hard to make the buildings inhabitable whilst most of their
rents were in arrear.
In their straits at this time the governors had unchecrful
relations with the greatest scholar of the times, Dr. Dudley
Loftus, polyglot writer in twenty tongues, who was then the
most learned orientalist in Europe. Syriac, Armenian,
Ethiopic, to say nothing of Hebrew, to him were alike familiar ;
then he was a great Jurist, a Theologian, and an Antiquary.
Some might say much learning had made him mad, and one did
say : — '' he never knew so much learning in the keeping of a
fool," but he had mother wit enough for, successively,
royalist, Cromwellian, royalist again, Jacobite, andWilliamite,
he lived in Dublin through the revolution, and on under
William, respected by all the five regimes. He was Crom-
well's judge advocate-general, and Charles H.'s vicar-
general. But he owed King's Hospital £800, for which they
threatened to sue him in 1692 ; it was still due when he died
in 1695, and was only realized far in Arme's time, our books
I
114 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
through all the interval being dotted with entries of his
arrears. It might be too much to expect that one who wrote
reams in Ethiopian could think of such small things as debts.
Our security was his house on the Blind (now Essex Qua}/),
where he lived and wrote ; money was very scarce ; 3'et he
left a fortune. He was a cadet of the eminent family,
descended from Adam Loftiis, Queen Elizabeth's Primate,
ancestor of the Marquises of Ely, and his brother was owner
of Rathfarnham Castle, the seat of the Marquises till
Victoria's reign. ^-
In the year 1692 an apparent source of revenue was
granted to the Hospital, which illustrates some of the then
conditions of the city. The coal ships were still discharged
at Ringsend, whence the cargoes were still carried up river
in gabbards to the Wood and the Merchants' Quay, where
only they were allowed to land. The merchants hod now
combined to delay the gabbards in the tideway and on the
quay, refusing to sell till they had unduly raised the market
prices, so the city passed ordinances creating two new land-
ing quays, Ormonde and Arran, which marks the extension
of the town on the north side, and compelling the merchants
to discharge at one of these four wharves within six days
under penalty of two shillings per ton per day demurrage,
one half of which was assigned to the Blue Coat. These
merchants had further charged exorbitantly for the carriage
from Ringsend ; they were now confined to twelve pence per
ton under penalty of thrice that sum for extorting more, one
half of which was likewise assigned to our Hospital. This,
however, brought little present income, if it ever brought
any. Meanwhile little could be done, and the meetings of
the Board for two years were few and far between. But in
1693-94 Sir John Rogerson was Lord Mayor and our Chair-
man, and one of the most eminent of our citizens in his long
public life. He found the shock of the revolution still
paralyzing the Hospital structurally and financially, as it
continued to do during all the reign of William. In this year
12 There is an admirable sketch of Dr. W. Lofuis' career in (4eorge Stokes,
Some Irish Worthies oj the Itish Church.
TEMP. JAMES II. AND WILLIAM III., 1685-1702 115
there were fourteen meetings of the governors, at aU of which
he presided. The front of the Hospital was so mutilated
that it was essential to replace it, and the governors them-
selves subscribed for the restoration ; the royal arms of
William and Mary were erected with an inscription " Anno
Domini, 1694. This frontispiece was rebuilt at tlie charge
of the benefactors. Sir John Rogerson, then Lord Mayor,
John Page, and Robert Twigg, Sheriff." But all our endow-
ments were in arrear, the building on St. Stephen's Green
had ceased during the troubles, and the rents on the Lotts
belonging to the Hospital were in arrear, as were those of the
the tythes of Mullingar, the Dean's orchard, the Oxmantown,
and the Nodstown estates and were either irrecoverable or
could only be reached by large abatements and reduced rents
in the future. The Earl of Roscommon who had undertaken
the block between Hume Street and Merrion Row, could not
pay, and asked the governors to accept a surrender, and when
the new tenant of Nodstown was trying to rally he was sued
in a writ of dower by a Dam.e Upton, claiming as widow of
the man who had sold the estate to Gyles Martyn our bene-
factor years before. This, the governors, of course, must
defend, they held the claim to be vexatious and false, and
the minute states the direction of counsel that the Hospital
sliould plead that the doweress had never been married. Tlie
litigation went on for years, and though it came to naught
it added to burdens already scarce bearable. Rogerson
dealt with them bravely, liberal arrangements were made
with all our debtois in which he was well aided by Nehemiah
Donellan, our new Recorder, who now came vice Thomas
Coote, appointed by the restored regime in 1690, and now
advanced to the King's Bench. Then the Board petitioned
the Lords Justices setting forth their losses of the last six
years, as detailed above, which prevent them fulfilling their
duty under the charter to the Hospital built for three
hundred children ; they enclose a copy of the ordinance of
the Privy Council of 1679 as to the Consecration Feasts, nnd
pray that this may be now revived and reinforced, as the
newly made prelates had ceased to pay, saving only William
it6 foundation OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
King, the new Bishop of Derry. The Privy Council assembled
and in September, 1694, passed an order in Council accord-
ingly. This is signed by Lord Chancellor Porter, Narcissus
Marsh, now Archbishop of Dublin, and Sir Richard Reynell,
now Chief Justice of the King's Bench.
This year was appointed one of the best officers the
Hospital has ever enjoyed ; Bartholomew Wybrants,
steward and agent, vice Thomas Howard, who had broken
down under the stress of the troublous times. Wybrants
held ofiice for thirty-six years and will be referred to again.
A curious entry of this year marks the care then taken of
the religious training of the pupils. An order directs the
schoolmaster and the porter " to take them each Monday
morning to Christ Church to prayers in a decent and orderly
manner. The nurses to take care that their heads be
combed, their clothes clean, shoes tied, stockings and
garters." Tlie state of the chapel made this necessary.
The entries in 1695-97 deal chiefly with things of routine,
for the Board was still crippled from want of income. Our
chairmen were successively Lord Mayors, George Blackball,
WiUiam Watt, and Wilhani Billington. Donnellan, the
Recorder, was chosen a Baron of the Exchequer, of which
he was made chief in 1703, and Sir William Handcock now
becamxe our Recorder in his stead. One entry in 1696 may
be noticed as bearing on discussions of the Board in our own
time as to the limit of age in retaining pupils, sixteen having
been adopted by the governors for many years. This entry
directs that seventeen years should be the limit. Modern
ideas recognize this as essential if boys are to be trained
beyond the mere elements, and it has been again adopted
in our Hospital in the last few years.
But 1697-8 was a notable twelve months. Bartholomew
Van Homrigh was now Lord Mayor and proved to be one of
the most notable of our chairmen. He, like Rogerson,
presided at every one of the many meetings of the Board
in his year. Being an eminent shipowning merchant himself,
he strenuously promoted the training of boys in the mathe-
matics essential for navigation as already encouraged in the
TEMP. JAMES II. AND WILLIAM III., i()85-r702 117
School by the Merchants' Guild ; order is given that every
boy should be thus trained, wlio, on examination, was found
capable of learning. At this time, Mr. Henry Osborne, of
Dardistown, Co. Meath, gave the Hospital £i;0oo which had
far-reaching consequences. He gave it by a deed reserving
to himself and his heirs for ever the nomination of ten boys,
and to this the governors assented, for they sorely then
needed /i,ooo. At his death many years later he devised
this right to the Lord Bishop of Meath and liis successors.
It is very doubtful whether the governors had any power
thus to alienate to strangers their duty as trustees over
admissions, and further whether under the reservation to
his own heirs he could treat it as a fee simple, devisable to
an ecclesiastic corporation, but the governors have ever
since loyally adhered to the bargain, and honoured the
nominations of the Bishop of Meath to the present day.
For a single gift of £1,000 hundreds of boys have been
trained free during the two centuries since elapsed. It is
satisfactory to know that these episcopal nominations have
been well selected almost always. Osborne was a persona
gratis si ma with the governors, they asked to have his portrait
painted and placed in the Hospital for ever.^3 This honour be
declines in a quaintly gracious letter ; " such preserving of
memories," he says, " are due only to princes and great men ;
if extended to some benefactors others would expect it, and if
only given to some, he humbly asks to be excepted." " I am old,"
he adds, " and going to the place where such things are
forgotten, and desire I may do it silently." Then he pro-
mises to befriend the Hospital in the future. By his will he
left it a large legacy of £1,500, which, however, appears
never to have been received. Perhaps this promise was an
element in the governor's gratitude. This £1,000 throws
light on the then financial state of the city. Part of its
estate had been mortgaged, there was no money to redeem
the debt for which the city paid eighty pounds 3'carly, so
the corporation applied to our governors to lend them this
Osborne £1,000. Van Hom.righ and the Board assented,
!■' Minute, 24 March, 1703.
ii8 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
they to have eight per cent on the loan, which gave the School
for many years a virtual annuity of eighty pounds.
In 1698 we have the first admission to the School of a son
of one of the French refugees, Stephen Verger. They now
formed a considerable colony here ; they were industrious,
useful, citizens, and were welcomed. The city rolls give the
names of more than 150 admitted to the freedom of the city
by special grace, with full libert}- to trade, and in our journal
through the next fifty years it is interesting to note the great
numiber of our boys who were apprenticed to silk and ribbon
weaving, and the serge and poplin manufacture, introduced
by these skilful Frenchmen, whose work. Swift, a century
afterwards, so laboured to promote througli Queen Caroline
in London.
In 1694 the French Emigrees purchased, for their
Cemetery, Lott No. 10 on the north side of St. Stephen's
(jreen. The price was £16. They thus became the tenants
of the Blue Coat, in so far as they became subject to the
head rent granted to the School as its original endowment.
Mr. T. P. Le Fanu has kindly given the writer some interest-
ing notes on tliis subject.
Van Homrigh left his mark on the city. Through the
favour of his countryman, William, he now held high office
in the state. He was M.P. for Derry city from 1692-95, and
in this, 1698, we find him enrolled as one of the first members
of the Dublin Philosophical Society, m founded by William
Molyneux. He used his royal favour by petitioning the
Government that the ancient, loyal and metropolitan city
of Dublin, might, in everlasting memory of the great services
of William III. to its Protestant inhabitants, and as a mark
of his royal grace and favour, be honoured with a collar of
SS. and His Majesty's effigies on a medal to be worn by the
Mayor of tlie city. The King was then in Flanders, and there
at his court at Loo, on the 28 Oct., 1697, he signed a royal
warrant under which the Lords Justices here were to
authorize the making of the collar and medal as prayed
to be presented to Bartholomew Van Homrigh, Lord Mayor
^■' Dr. Stokes' Woythics of the Irish Church, p. 140.
TEMP. JAMES II. AND WILLIAM III., 1685-1702 iiq
of Dublin, to be worn by him during his continuance in office
and by the succeeding Mayors for ever as it has since ever
been. The cost, £770, was to be paid out of the Irish revenue
and collar and medal were " to be made in England by the
most able and skilful artists in things of this kind." ^' The
medal was executed by James Roettier, and is considered
one of the finest of his works. On the obverse is a bust of
tho King in armour, and inscribed in capitals : — " Gulielmus
Tertius. D.G. Mag. Brit. Fran, et Hib. Rex, James R. fecit."
On the reverse : — " Gulielmus III. antiquam et fidelum
Hiberni?e IMetropolin hoc Indulgentire Suae Munere Ornavit
Barth Van Homrigh Arm. Urb. PrcTtore, MDCXCVIII."
After paying for collar and medal, there was a surplus of
£250, and this, in July, 1701, the city voted should be applied
for the purchase of three gold chains for the Ma3^or and
Sheriffs of the city in succession. " They to give security for
the re-delivery of them as usual." Gold chains are tempting.
The former SS. Chain, presented to the City by Charles II.
had been abstracted bv somebody in the revolutionary
troubles.
In Van Homrigh's year the city may be said to have been
lighted for the first time. Hitherto there were but a few
lanterns in the principal streets, and these were put out at
nine o'clock, when, as if a curfew tolled, the shops were
closed. Now a plan was adopted following that in use in
Holland and in London, from Kensington to Whitehall, for
erecting lights in all the streets and lanes at intervals of from
six to eight houses, which burned from six to twelve o'clock
through all the winter months. There were then presumably
few burglars in Dublin, for we do not find much record of
felonies, and yet the city was in darkness from midnight to
morn.
So much for Van Homrigh. His name has been made
classic by Swift's Cadesus and Vanessa, which surround it
with the glamour of a sad romance.
Of 1698-9 we have little to record. Thomas Quin, Lord
Mayor, was our chairman. Our chaplain, Rev. Thomas
'•''' Gilbert's Calendar, 6, viii.
120 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Hemsvvorth, now gently announced that he intended chang-
ing his condition, which the then rule enforcing cehbacy and
residence forbade. But lie soon after obtained preferment,
and in the beginning of 1700 resigning, the Rev. Charles Can
became chaplain and schoolmaster, but under strictly ex-
pressed conditions that he was to hold under the same
obligations as to celibacy residence, the entertaining of the
boys, the preaching in the chapel, expressed in the Order of
i6(Si, when Benjamin Colquit was appointed, and on these
terms his name was sent by the governors for confirmation
by Archbishop Narcissus Marsh, pursuant to the Charter.
The new century opened well for the Hospital, our chair-
man and Lord Mayor, 1699-1700, was Sir Anthony Percy.
Our finances were at last improving, and the governors now
raised the number of the boys to eighty. A legacy of 1^600
bequeathed by the late Chief Baron Bysse, was now paid in,
and by Lord Mayor Percy's aid, was lent to the city, which
was still deeply in debt, and who now agreed to pay the
Hospital an annuity at eight per cent, or forty-eight pounds,
whilst the loan rem.ained outstanding. Percy's mayoralty
has left a memorable mark in Dublin. Under him the
Assembly resolved to erect a statue of M'^illiam III. in copper
or mixed metal. A contract was made under authority of
the Lord Mayor, with the celebrated sculptor, Grinling
Gibbons, for £800. Gibbons or Gibbon, Evelyn gives it both
ways, was discovered by the great Diarist in 1670, in a
wretched shanty near Deptford, carvmg a splendid copy of
Tintoietto's Crucifix, and he at once perceived the man's
genius. He introduced him to his friend, King Charles, as
" this incomparable young man ; " he proved to be the
greatest wood sculptor England has ever seen, and the most
prolific : he was a great statuary, too. His works still adorn
many of the great cathedralsedilia andstalls,andmany palaces
and houses. From Evelyn alone we have notes of his deco-
rating Windsor, St. James's, Whitehall, and of his equestrian
statue of Charles II. On ist July, 1701, anniversary of the
Boyne, his statue of William was inaugurated in College
Green, the ceremonial, as witnessed by a contemporary, is
TEMP. JAMES II. AND WILLIAM III., 1685-1702 121
described in the preface of the sixth vohime of Sir John
Gilbert's Calendar. All the civic authorities were there, with
the military and city bands, grenadiers, militia, and crowds
immense. At the statue they received the Lords Justices
in State, Archbishop Narcissus Marsh, and the Earls of
Drogheda and Mount Alexander. Then all marched together
thrice, nobility and gentry joining in, all uncovered. Kettle-
drums, trumpets, and all kinds of music resounded from a
stage liard by. Then our Recorder, Handcock, made a
florid oration setting forth the great deeds of the King, after
which there was a volley from the great guns. Then the
Lords Justices, the nobility and gentry, with the Provost and
Fellows of Trinity College, were entertained by the Lord
Mayor in an improvised building, and when the King's
health was drunk the grenadiers fired the great guns again,
and hogsheads of claret with baskets of cakes were opened
for the multitude. The great people then adjourned to the
Mansion House, where the Lord Mayor gave a splendid
banquet, ladies being present, and the night closed with
fireworks, ringing of bells, illuminations and bonfires. A
tablet on the north side of the statue is inscribed : — Inclio-
atum An. Dom. MDCC. Antonio Percy Equite Aurato
Praetore, Carolo Forrest, Jocob Barlow vice Comites.
Absolutum An. Dom. MDCCL Marco Rainsford equite
aurato Praetore Johanne Eccles Rudolpho Gore, vice
Comites.
Sir John Gilbert states that the execution of this statue
by Grinling Gibbons had been unnoticed previous to the
publication of his Calendar. The inaugural ceremonial
throws light on the periodic march of the College students
around the statue on festival days in the two centuries
since elapsed. Our modern crowds would bear this more
patiently, perhaps, if the wine were flowing and the cakes
were throwing as on that ist July, 1701.
In this year two ex officio governors were added to the
Board. The Masters, Wardens, and Brothers of the Trinity
Guild of Merchants, voted £24 a year to the Hospital in con-
sideration of having three nominations of boys so long as this
122 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
annuity continued. The then Masters of the Guild, Joseph
James, and Thomas Pleasants, were at once co-opted as
Governors during their term of office, to be succeeded by
their successors. Masters for the time being. In the next year,
1701, SamAiel Walton, being Lord Mayor and our Chair-
man, the Master and two Wardens of St. Anne's Guild,
Charles Wallis, Christopher Borr, and John Quin, were
similarly co-opted, ex officio, that Guild having voted £40'
a year to the Hospital some time before.
In 1701, Sir W. Handcock, the Recorder, died, and John
Forster was chosen in his stead. One of the first duties of his
active Recordership, was to draw up the address of con-
dolence on the death of King William the Third, " of blessed
memory," and of loyal congratulation to the new Queen Anne..
The address is given in full in Sir J. Gilbert's Calendar. ^^^ It
bears date only five days after the King's demise, on the
8 March, 1702.
Osborne's gift brought to the Blue Coat the association
of names much loftier than his. The gift was inspired by his
friend, William Molyneux, philosopher, patriot, mathe-
matician, metaphysician, the correspondent of Locke, who
said he was proud to call him his friend. Representative of
the family of Castle Dillon, Armagh, he was now M.P. for
Dublin. Sent, when young, to report to the Government
scientifically on the fortresses of Holland menaced by Louis,
he was made, on his return, a fellow of the newly formed
Royal Society, and came home ambitious to form a similarly
great institution here. In 1653, he, accordingly, formed
the Dublin Philosophical Society, which, though broken up
and exiled in James II. 's revolution, ultimately evolved into
the Royal Dublin Society as it now exists, for restored from
exile, after the Boyne, he resumed his scientific labours, and
also entered the field of politics, wherein, too, he attained
high fame. Our governors, grateful for his services in the
Osborne gift, elected him a governor, and we find him at our
Board in April, 1698, sitting beside his friend, Bartholomew
Van Homrigh, then Lord Mayor. It was in this year he
i« Vol. 6, 262.
TEMP. JAMES II. AND WILLIAM III., 1685 1702 123
published his famous Case of Ireland Stated, oft quoted even
now, but he sat little in public places again ; he died in the
following October, He brought witli him to our Ploard, his
])rother-in-law, Dr. John Madden, and his brother, Thomas,,
whose scientific eminence approached liis own. Madden
and Thomas j\Iol3aieux were amongst the most distin-
guished physicians of the day. They had been colleagues
of William in the founding of the Dublin Philosophical,
whicli Thomas lived to see merged in the Royal Dublin
Society, and helped the merger. He was physician-general
to the army in Ireland, and was made a baronet in 1730.
Dr. JMadden, when becoming a governor, most generoush''
offered his services as standing physician to the School. He
is ancestor of the Right Hon. Mr. Justice Madden, \icQ-
Chancellor of T.C.D., and was father of Dr. Samuel Madden,
the eminent scholar and founder of the great fellowship
premium in his University.
The names of Molyneux and Madden recall the connection
with the King and Queen's College of Physicians,
inaugurated by them, which existed for very many years
aftei, and which adds a memorable grace to the Annals of
the Blue Coat. Dr. John Madden had been President of the
College in 1694, 1697, and in 1700. Sir Thomas IMolyneux
held the same position four times, in 1702, 1709, 1713 and
1720, and was a Governor of our School in all these years.
In 1717 the Blue Coat Board passed a resolution that all
Presidents of the College, for the time being, should be
ex oificio Governors. Of these Dr. Br\'an Robinson, President
in 1708, 1727 and 1739, and Dr. William Harvey, President
in 1784, 1791, 1797, 1802 and 1814, were in turn the acting
medical officers of our Hospital.
Our chairmen in King William's reign, were. Lord
Mayors, 1690-1, John Otterington ; 91-2-3, Sir Michael
Mitchell ; 93-4, Sir John Rogerson ; 94-5, George Blackball ;
95-6, William Watt ; 96-7, Wm. Billington ; 97-8, Bartholo-
mew Van Homrigh ; 98-9, Thomas Quin ; 99-700, Anthony
Percy ; 1701-2, Samuel Walton.
124 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
During the revolution, and for some years after, the
extension of the city was checked, for its chiefs were more
occupied in fiUing the wastes already taken in than in enclos-
ing others. In 1699, reciting the great increase of the city
" which is now much greater in the suburbs than within the
walls," the Assembly resolve that the ancient gates are now
of little use or security, and so decree that the old Damas
gate, the principal entrance to the city, shall be pulled down,
as some others have been by toleration of the Government."
So down went the historic approach to the Castle through
which the Piantagenet pageants had passed.^/ Reform is
ruthless, yet the Order vindicates its vandalism, stating the
entrance to be uphill, and only nine feet across, whilst the
removal \^iil give fourteen feet at Crane Lane, and so let two
carriages pass. Crane Lane to-day where Dame Street
narrows at the Lower Castle Yard, marks the site of the
mediaeval tower.
1' Gilbert's Calendar, 6, 222.
[ 125 ]
CHAPTER VI.
1702-1 7 14. TEMP. QUEEN ANNE.
An entry in our books in Queen Anne's first year, indicates
that she acknowledged the loyal address of the City by a
royal gift to King's Hospital. It runs : "^200 given b}^
the Queen out of the quarter's vacancy of the Primacy.'^
This is noteworthy, as suggesting a remnant of the Pre-
rogative by which during the vacancy of a See or Diocese
its revenues vested in the Crown. It was by this assumed
right, William Rufus left bishoprics vacant for years,
seizing the income meanwhile, and this led to his murder,
for murder it was, in the New Forest. When King Henry
VIII. became Caput Ecclesiasticum, this prerogative again
attached to the supremacy and went to his successors, and
it was used by Charles II., when needy, or his ladies were
greedy. In December, 1702, Primate Michael Boyle died
after a reign at Armagh of twenty-four years, and in Spring
Narcissus Marsh was appointed. Dr. Wm. King of Derry
being translated to Dublin. Thus there was a vacancy of
three months, during which Dr. King administered the
revenues under the Crown, and probably prompted our
royal gift. The loyal city for some time afterwards styled
our School, " The Queen's Hospital." One of Anne's
best, because sincerest, characteristics, was her devotion
to the Church, as evinced by Queen Anne's Bounty, and the
surrender to the Church of the First Fruits or first year's
revenue of benefices which Henr}^ had taken from the
Pope in his own supremacy. This grace was soon after
conferred by the Queen on the Church of Ireland, mainly
owing to Swift's mission and exertions.
King's Hospital just now obtained a parish church
with parochial rights. Hitherto St. Michan's covered
126 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL.
the whole north side of the river from the Park to the
North Strand, with houses few and far between. But after
the Restoration the City spread, and many nobles now had
villas in Oxmantown. By Statute of 9 William III., c. 16,
reciting that from the late increase of buildings and inhabi-
tants in the Parish of St. Michan's in tlic suburbs of Dublin
the cure of souls had become too great for a single minister,
it was divided into three — St. PauTs, taking Oxmantown
Green from the Park to Smithfield, St. Mary's, extending
east from Capel Street to the sea, the centre being reserved
to the mother parish, St. Michan's. In 1702, St. Paul's was
ready for consecration. At this ceremonial a deed of gift
in perpetuity was always exhibited which on the petition
of the new Parish, the City now gi anted, but thereby
reserved "a seat in the Church for the Lord Mayor and his
successors, and a place for the Blew Boys of King Charles's
Hospital," which then lay almost adjacent to the new
Parish Church. Dr. Ezekiel Burridge was first rector of
St. Paul's — he was one of our benefactors.
As its own Chapel and Chaplain were part of its Chartered
Constitution, the Blue Coat did not often need to claim its
statutory rights in St. Paul's, though the boys were sometimes
sent there when our chapel was not available. And when
in 1821 St. Paul's was being re-built, our governors granted
the Blue Coat Chapel to be used temporarily as the parish
church, in response to a memorial from the Rev. ]\Ir. Radcliffe
the rector of St. Paul's.
This year the number of boys was increased to 82, the
patronage of the two city guilds proved a great stimulus to
the Governors and the staff. The tiaining in mathematics
was specially committed to Moland, our steward, who was
■also surveyor and accountant of the Corporations and to
Mead, our second master, who was with us from the
beginning, and who was this year specially thanked by the
Board, and his salary raised. The Trinity Guild of
Merchants recognised the carrying out of the p(.)hcy by
raising their annual contribution to the Hospital to /50,
which they paid for many years. In 171 the}^ by leave
TEMP. QUEEN ANNE, 1702-1714 127
of the Governors, formed a Mathematical class-room in a
gallery of the Hospital, they had a Navigation school ot
their own, and in 1711 arranged with our board to train in
this, four of our best lads, sending to our class four boys
of their own nomination, and a few years after they gave
a further grant of £20 yearly for a master to teach eight
of our boys the art of navigation.
The return of Archbishop King to Dublin was a
momentous event for oui Hospital, for the many 3^ears in
which as buildei of churches, reformer of abuses in church
and state, organiser of charities, promoter of education,
he wrought with a generous energy which has never been
rivalled, up to his death in 1729. ^ His influence operated
everywhere, for with the Corporation it was immense.
We can trace it thus early, though unseen, in the advance
our School now makes. In 1704 all our boys were trained
in Church music systematically, and we find them two years
after placed under a skilled musician, Neville Fane. This
step taken two centuries ago in a Dublin Charity School,
is noteworthy, when we think of how little the example
has been followed since, or even in these days of universal
education of all classes in all things. This, with the progress
of our Mathematical classes, brought us new governors,
as always happened when the school throve. The Hon.
Sir Charles Fielding, Colonel of the King's Regiment of
Guards, and a Privy Councillor, now joined the board. He
was brother of the Third Eail of Denbigh, and grand-uncle
of the great novelist, Henry Fielding. At his deatii a few
years afterwards he left us a legacy. With him came
William, second Viscount Charlemont, to remain a governor
for the rest of his life. Then we have nominations by the
Duchess of Ormond, the wife of the Lord Lieutenant, second
Duke ; she was Mary, daughter of the Duke of Beaufort ;
and by the Lord Chancellor, Sir Richard Cox.
And yet at this time we find the sequelae of the Revolu-
tion still seriously weakening us in the general want of
1 On his return his nephew, Thos. King, our Old Chaplain, Tyrconnell's
prisoner, was chosen Prebendary of Swords in S. Patrick's Cathedral.
I2S FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL.
money ; our waste grounds in Stephen's Green and Oxman-
town still unbuilt on, and our rents of these and through
the country deeply in arrear, owing to what are now called
the late troublous times. So our governors were obliged
to look out on all sides for ways and means.
A source of income had been devised by letting the great
hall for public entertainments : this was now put an end to.
A rope dancer had given us one benefit night in 1703 for
the use of the hall, which yielded just £20, but the Governors
decreed that—" such diversions were very prejudicial to
good government, causing the boys to be disorderly, to
break the glass windows and cause scandal," — so the rope
dancing ceased, doubtless much to the disgust of our boys^
and a Board Order forbade the future letting of the Hall
save by special leave of the Governors. This seems to have
been given some time after, when the great Italian Opera
singer, Nicolini, came to Dublin. He had taken London by
storm, he was the Mario of his day, and was known in
Naples as Cavaliere Nicolini, and Addison pronounces him
the greatest performer in dramatic music then living, or
that perhaps ever appeared on our stage, but our Governors
did not appreciate the memory this celebrity would leave
to King's Hospital ; though he gave them a benefit night
which fetched £40, they treated his performance as they
had done that of the poor nameless acrobat, for in December,
171 1, the Board resolved that the use of the hall for such
purposes had given great offence, and that it should never
again be employed for " Musick Meetings," or public diversions
of any kind. But the loss from this source was paitly
compensated. There was then a usage that each newly
co-opted alderman should give a feast to the Lord Mayor
and his fellows in our boardroom, not in the Tholsel. Thomas
Bell being Lord Mayor and chairman, it was ordered that
the three late chosen aldermen and all their successors
should in lieu of the banquet pay £10 to the Hospital, and
this usage continued for many years.
At this time, too, the medical care of the School was placed
upon a systematic basis, and the connexion with the K. and
TEMP. QUEEN AXNE, 1702-1714 129
Q. College of Physicians confirmed which lasted for generations,
to the lasting honour of the College, whose generosity to our
Hospital was beyond all praise. Their original charter bore
nearly equal date with ours. Their royalty, like ours, comes
from Charles IL Foi ten years past the Surgeon-General,
Dr. Proby, had taken medical charge of the School gratui-
tously ; in 1705 he was obliged to discontinue for a time, and
a special meeting of our Board was held, and very largely
attended. Proby was called in, and the Lord Mayor conveyed
to him the thanks of the Governors for his great charity in
taking care of the sick and distempered children for all those
years. He was thereupon elected a Governor, and took his
seat then and there, promising to continue his good offices so
far as possible. Dr. Minchin, who had acted in his absence,
was also thanked, and a resolution passed to attend at the
College of Physicians and ask that they might be pleased
to allow one of their Fellows always, by turns, to afford their
charitable advice to the children as occasion should require.
In March, 1706, Dr. Grattan, the President, conveyed to the
Board the decision of the College that they were so charitably-
disposed as to give their advice and assistance to the Hos-
pital on all occasions gratis, and would take care that one of
their members should every three months by turns constantly
visit the School ; and they asked that three of the waste
rooms should now be set apart as an Infirmary, and this was
done. The names of Grattan and Minchin have been honor-
ably represented in the medical profession of Dublin through
many years, nearly reaching to our own times.
1706 witnessed a great movement in the making of Dublin
which promised to be a signal aid to King's Hospital. The
VI. Anne, c. 20, made Dublin for the first time a real Port.
Reciting the miserable condition of the river estuary and
consequent necessity of discharging the ships at Ringsend
and carrying the cargoes up river through sandy shoals, this
Act created a Ballast Office, which was in truth our first Port
and Harbour Boaid ; its chief members were the Lord Mayor
and aldermen. All ships were now obliged to take ballast
from the estuary bed at a shilling per ton, with twopence per
K
130 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
ton besides as harbour dues, foreign vessels being charged at
higher rates ; and it was provided that the whole surplus
revenue of the new board should be paid over towards the
maintenance of the Blue Coat School. This apparently splendid
subsidy, howevei, proved nugatory as such, for the operations
of the Ballast Office throughout the century were so large
and continuous in channelling the Liffey and construct-
ing quays, that they not only never had a surplus, but were
always heavily in debt. The provision, nevertheless, marks
the high estimate in which our School was now publicly held,
and its part in the life of the city, whose governors, as
presently seen, gave the Hospital a considerable equivalent
for the income that thus proved illusory. The proposed
appropriation of the Port revenue to the city school was sup-
ported in an address by the City Assembly to Prince George
of Denmark, the Queen's Consort, then High Admiral of
Great Britain and Ireland, on the ground that the boys were
instructed in navigation to qualify them for Her Majesty's
sea service.-
What would our temperance reformers of to-da}' think of
the governors who erected a brewery in King's Hospital to
brew our own beer for our boys ? We may plead in mitigation,
however, that it was only small beer. There were even then
nearly seventy brewers in Dubhn ; they had suffered like
other trades through the political convulsions. In the fever of
these, in 1689, Tyiconnell's troopers had impressed their
horses, with such a paralysis to trade and excise that the
Jacobite Government had to stop their ov/n troopers by pro-
clamation, and even now the small beer was dear. So our
governors petitioned the Corporation, which was not then so
strongly represented by " the Trade " as now, and, in
January, 1707, the Assembly voted ;£ioo to the Hospital foi
a brewhouse — " whereby the number of poor bovs main-
tained therein may be encouraged in the frugal management
of brewing their own drink."' ■' Our governor, Alderman Hen-
drick, who lived close by, and from whom Hendrick Street is
named, was commissioned to carry out the work. The
- Gilbeit's Caloidar, 6, 274. ^ Gill)crt's Calenclay, C\ 36
TEMP. QUEEN ANNE, 1702-1714 131
quality of our brewings may be understood by exports from
an entry in our minutes directing that 18 barrels of beer shall
be brewed from 8 barrels of malt.
In 1707 Ezekiel Burridge, first rector of the new St. Paul's.
died, and thereon en-^aed an unseemly quarrel, which affected
our school routine for a time, and which throws curious light
on the judicial system then in force. In May, 1708, there is
an order of our Board directing Charles Cair, the chaplain, to
preach every Friday morning and read prayers in the chapel,
and in the afternoon to catechise the boys and read evening
prayers, as provided by the original Order of 1675, and that
for the future the boys should not continue to attend St.
PauFs. This order they respited a few days after—" till the
law suite between Mr. Carr and the Dean and Chapter of
Christ Church be ended, provided it continue not more than
six months ; " and this respite was afterwards extended, for
the suit continued through ten long years. Our books give no
further hint of the subject of dispute, those of Christ Church
scarce more, and no trace can be found either in the Public
Records Ofhce or the Irish Law Books. But a search has
unearthed the story in Josiah Brown's reports of Cases in the
English House of Lords, and shows it to be a first chapter of
the fierce conflict which waged for sixteen years between the
Dean and Chapter and Archbishop Kmg.4 Burridge died
4th August, 1707, and on the selfsame day the Dean and
Chapter, in indecent haste, nominated Revd. William
Williamson rector, acting on the right of nomination reserved
to them by the Act of 1696 ; executed the Instrument of
Induction on the following day, and before Burridge was
buried ; and certified their act to the Archbishop in Septem-
ber. On Sunday, 9th November, Williamson came to St.
Paul's and read the morning prayers ; but before he could
read himself in according to law, our chaplain, Carr, shut the
doors and excluded the congregation at evening service, and
when Williamson proceeded again to officiate, Carr with both
hands closed his eyes and mouth, and he was unable to read
' For more of this quarrel, see Dr. George Sloke's Woyihic.'i of the Irish
Church, Chapter X.
132 FOUNDATION OF THF KING'S HOSPITAL
himself in, a form then essential to perfect his title as rector,
even if otherwise valid. This more than strong measure was
manifestly dictated by the Archbishop in order to cast on
Christ Church the burden of proving title, rather than forcing
him to proceed against a rector de facto in possession, for the
real objection to Williamson was that the Dean and Chapter
had refused to present him for approval of the Archbishop as
"Ordinary of the Arch-Diocese. The Dean was then Dr. Welborc;
Ellis, Bishop of Kildare, so appointed in 1705. He was tiuly
a lighting prelate. The contention of the Dean and Chapter
was that, as the successors to the Abbey of the Holy Trinity,
reconstituted by Henry VHL as a cathedral, the}' still had
the old abbatial right to a jurisdiction of their own, free from
that of the Archbishop, and extending over all the prebendary
churches of the cathedral, of which Old St. Michan's was one,
and that this right was preserved when the parish was divided
into three under the words of the statute, which gives them
the patronage of all three in such manner as the right of
presentation to the old parish of St. Michan's had previously
existed, and not otherwise ; or, as the lawyers expressed it,
that their rights were donative, in their own free gift, and not
presentativc and subject to the approval of the Ordinary' as
all other parishes were. So, in 1708, they proceeded in the
Irish Common Plea,s by a feigned plaintiff against Carr for
the prevention and exclusion of Williamson, and his personal
acts of the 9th November. The Common Pleas decided on
full argument in favoui of Christ Church that the living
was donative ; but an appeal then lay from them to the
Irish Queen's Bench, who, on bill of exceptions and writ of
error, unanimously reversed the Common Pleas. This was
in Hilary^ 170Q. From the Irish Queen's Bench there was
a similar right of appeal to the Queen's Bench in England,
which was taken in 1712, and they unanimously affirmed the
Queen's Bench here, but Christ Church still went on. They
took the case to the English Lords, where it was argued in
1717 at gi-eat length by great lawyers ; Constantine Phipps,
Lord Chancellor here when the litigation began, but who had
returned to the English Bar when superseded on the acces-
TEMP. QUEEN ANNE, 1702-1714 133
sion of George I., was for Christ Church, and Raymond, the
great lawyer and reporter, was counsel for Carr. The Lords
unanimously affirmed the two Queen's Benches, and gave
judgment for Carr, deciding that the Rectory was presen-
tative, and that on the division into three parishes each
became like all others in tlie city subject to the jurisdiction
of the Metropolitan, the statute merely preserving the right of
Christ Church to present, like other patrons. Three other
contention? of the Dean and Chapter met a similar fate. On
similar grounds they had denied the Archbishop's right to
visit the Cathedral, and, locking the gates, compelled him to
liold his visitation outside the west door. They also spurned
his right to summon to his visitation the prebendaries of
their cathedral stalls ; obliged Theophilus Harrison, rector
of old St. John's, to refuse to attend them and to bring an
action against the Archbishop ; they refused to admit the
Archbishop's nephew, Archdeacon Dongat, to his ex- officio
seat in the Chapter, unless he first swore canonical obedience
to the Dean. All these ca\ises, like Carr's, went each to the
four above-named tribunals, and in all twelve hearings the
Archbishop prevailed, ha\-ing fifteen judgments in all against
the single one against Carr on the original hearing in the
Common Pleas.
Meanwhile the Archbishop, as upon a lapse, had presented
Dr. Carr to St. Paul's to hold along with his Blue Coat Head-
mastership and chaplaincy, and it was thus he could not
officiate on Sunday in our chapel — obliged to keep William-
son out and himself in, at St. Paul's Church. He had now
become a notable, and was appointed also Chaplain to the
House of Commons, for the Archbisliop was a staunch friend.
This Christ Church episode is more interesting to us from our
relations in other things with the Dean Bishop Welbore Ellis ;
during Anne's reign the name of Dean Pierre or Peter Drelin-
court very often appears in our records as a governor and
benefactor. He gave the Hospital £700 charge on the estate
of Sir William Ellis, a relative of the bishop. This estate
proved insolvent, and our governors were involved in litiga-
tion with its representatives, of whom the bishop was one, to
T34 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL.
raise the cliarge, and it was only after several years that, in
1709, when the Christ Church suit was at its height, the
bishop compromised our claim, paying himself £500 to the
Board. Though a fierce litigant, he did not resent the action
of the Hospital ; his animus was against the Archbisho]). for,
a Jacobite himself, he hated the Archbishop, who was an
arch-William ite, and for a worse motive, because the Arch-
bishop was bent on suppressing the abuses at Christ Church,
many of which were flagrant, and which he has thus summed
up: — " They live in opposition to all mankind except their-
lawyers, squander their earnings, have turned their Chapter
House into a tov shop, their vaults into wine cellars, and
allowed a room in the body of the church, formerly for a ( rrand
Jury room, now for a robe room, for the judges, and are
greatly chagrined at my getting two or three churches built
in the parishes belonging to them, which were formerl}^
neglected, as several others still are ; their Cathedral is in a
pitiful condition, and they seem to have little regard to the
good of the Church or the service of God. This has made me
zealous to settle my jurisdiction over them, and the same
makes them unwilling to come under it." These abuses
could only plead prescription, for we have seen how toy shops
and wine cellars had been denounced by Strafford and
Primate Bramhall seventy years before ; and yet Bishop
Ellis merits a kindly word here, for, after his final defeat in
the St. Paul's case, he joined our Board in 1715, though Carr
was still our chaplain, gave us £50 in 1720 and £50 in 1729 ;
and when made Bishop of Kildare and Dean, he had paid his
Consecration Feasts, £30, which so many other bishops were
then very chary of doing. He died in 1731, Bishop of Meath
and a Privy Councillor, and is ancestor of the Agar Ellises,
Viscounts Clifden. He came from Oxfoid, where his portrait
still hangs, imported to Ireland like so many bishops then, as
so furiously denounced by Swift ; but he rests in Christ
Church, headc|uarters of his lengthened wars.
Dean Drelincouit's ^^700 was munificent, for he was him-
self a refugef^ the son of a notable French Protestant
Minister. He came here in 1681, and was made chaplain to
TEMP. QUEEN ANNE, 1702-1714 135
the great Duke of Ormond and Precentor of Christ Church.
Struck by the warm welcome his compatriots received from
the city, he preached a famous sermon before the Lord Lieu-
tenant and Privy Council there, to return^ as he said, the
humble thanks of the French Protestants arrived in Dublin
and graciously relieved ; and this sentiment was doubtless the
motive of his gift to the City School. In 1691 he became
Dean of Armagh, but still retained his connection with Christ
Church and with our Board, loyally helping us to realise his
gift. His correspondence with the governors, of whom he
was an active one, exhibits the amiable personality whicli
made him popular here and in Armagh. At tlie request of
the governors, he sat for his portrait, which for several gene-
rations decorated oui walls, but which has disappeared, we
know not how. He died in 1722, Dean and Rector of
Armagh, where his handsome monument in the cathedral
preserves a worthy memory. His portrait was by Michael
Mitchell, who painted many celebrities of the day, including
that of George L presented by that king to the city, but which
was cut to pieces in 1719 by unknown vandals, presumably
Jacobites, who forcibly broke into the City Hall of the
Tholsel by night. "^
In 1709 oui chairman and Lord Mayor was Sir William
Fownes, one of the worthies and makers of Dublin. Fownes's
Street was laid out by him, as was Cope Street hard by,
which is named from his son-iu-la>\'. A ver\^ interesting
letter of Fownes' to Swift, who many years after consulted
him on his project foi Swift's Hospital, describes the con-
dition of Dublin as regards the Insane, during the period of
his mayorality, which is memorable for the presentation of
the freedom by him of the city to ' ' the Right Honourable
Joseph Addison, Esquire, Chief Secretary of State to the
Lord Lieutenant of this Kingdom." He had come with Lord
Wharton on his first visit to Ireland, but his lame had pie-
ceded him. No other Secretary had till then been called "Chief,"
and he is perhaps the only one who has been publicly styled
a Secretary of State. Amongst our benefactions at the
■'• GilhpTt's CaJoular 7, viii.
136 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
period were ;{400 by the will of Dr. Steevens, who also left
;£6oo a year to found the Hospital called by his name, and
which his sister, Madame Griselda Steevens, generously com-
pleted in the following reign ; ;^ioo left b}^ Mr. John Salmon,
a London merchant, and some similar bequests of the same
amount ; and amongst our nominators we find Sir Richard
Pyne, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, and the Countess of
Donegall ; she was a daughter of the Earl of Granard. There
is also a legacy of £50 by Dr. Ezekiel Burridge, our old neigh-
bour, first rector of St. Paul's alluded to above. It was a
liberal bequest from a clergyman who was not rich. We find
his namesake, Ezekiel Burridge, amongst the forty boys
admitted to the School under the Toll Corne Subsid}^, pre-
sently mentioned, on the request of his widow, and, having
regard to this benefaction ; it was his testimony as a witness
to the value of the School, close by which he had officiated
in the new parish church.
The success and popularity of the School had naturally led
to an increase in the admissions, which, in 1713, had reached
no ; this encouraged the governors to petition the city for
such an annual allowance as would enable them to utilise the
building constructed to receive 300 boys. There was a tax
on all grain coming into the city then, for free fooders were
not 3^et in evidence. This was known as the " Toll Corne."
The Assembly thereupon ordered that £250 per annum, in
case the Toll Corne should answer same, should be appropria-
ted for the support of forty boys to be added to the number
in the Hospital. 6 This, commencing from All Saints, 1712,
proved one of our main sources of income for over eighty
years. Some seventeen new boys were now admitted, but
the full carrying out of the project was checked by the city
schism in the last years of Queen Anne and the consequent
interregnum to the mayoralty. About the same time two
houses in Smithfield were devised to the Hospital by the will
of Dr. Pooley, Bishop of Raphoe, and which we still hold at
the present day. He was an old neighbour, when rector of
the old undivided parish of St. Michan's, and as such had
'■' Gilbert's Calendar, 6, 479.
TEMP. QUEEN ANNE, 1702-1714 137
been a Prebendary of Christ Church. He was a Fellow of
Trinity College, and was raised successively to the Bishoprics
of Cloyne and Raphoe ; but he never forgot his old friends of
Oxmantown, and showered gifts on his old St. Michan's,
where he lies, and where his monument still records his large-
hearted charities, of which a list is given in Harris's Jl'<r/r.
This Toll Corne subsidy was presumably granted owing to
the failure of the Ballast Office grant as a source of income.
The Three Years War.
The history vi England in the last four years of Queen
Anne was reflected in Dublin, and affected even the Blue
Coat School. Our minute book, which, save in James H.'s
time, has given an unbroken record from the opening to 1713,
shows an hiatus of fourteen months from September, 1713,
to November, 1714. This is not neglect or mutilation, but
the mute evidence of an interregnum when no meetings were
held, due to the three years' conflict between the Irish
Government and the Corporation, which itself reflected the
conflict that then raged through the three Kingdoms. Tlius
the story has a place here. The flight of Bolingbroke, the
impeachment of Harley, the attainder and exile of the Duke
of Ormonde, were the outcome of the intrigues in the Tory
ministry which Swift's genius kept in power through the
preceding four years, when, conscious of the Queen's
yearnings towards her stepbrother, some of them at least
schemed to bring home the Chevalier of St. George as James
HI. on the next demise of the Crow^n. The Irish Govern-
ment, under the second Duke of Ormonde, had certainly
leanings that way ; but the aldermen of the Corporation, or
their great majority, were Williamite or Hanoverian to the
core. Even in 1712 they addressed the Queen after the
Treat}'- of Utrecht, thanking her for supporting the succes-
sion of the Crown in the illustrious House of Hanover. By
a very ancient usage our Mayors were elected annually at the
Easter Assembly, to hold office from the Morrow of Michael-
mas for the ensuing year. Essex's Rules of 1672, pro-
138 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
vided that the Lord Mayor, the Sheriffs, and the Treasurer
should be elected by the Lord Mayor and aldermen of the
city, that no other person should have a vote, and if any of these
officers should not be approved by the Privy Council within
ten days of presentation of their names, the aldermen should
proceed to a new election. In Elizabeth's time, the expense
of the miayoralt}' being onerous, a byelaw was made by the
Corporation that each alderman should keep his turn foi
bearing the charge of the Mayoralty " according to his
ancientry," that is, that the alderman next below the cushion
as it was called, should serve. This byelaw was repealed in
Oliver's time, but re-enacted in his son Henry's, in 1657 !
nevertheless this order of succession had frequently not been
observed. In 1709, when the strong Whig, Lord Wharton,
was Lord Lieutenant, Alderman Robert Constantine was
senior alderman below the cushion. He was a very respec-
table gentleman, a druggist and apothecary, had been Sheriff
in 1696, and for some fourteen years had been one of the
most attentive of our governors ; in some years his name
appears at every one of our meetings. At the Spring election
of 1709 for the Mayoralty his name was put up with two
others of our governors, Alderm.en Forrest and Ecclcs.
Forrest was elected, though not the senior. Constantine then
relying on the rule, petitioned the Lord Lieutenant in Council
to withold approval ; but the Council, regarding the rule of
succession as " a sleepy and obsolete law," confirmed Forrest
as Lord Mayor. At the Easter Assembly, 1710, Constantine
was again similarly passed over, Alderman Eccles, his junior^
being elected ; and again appealing to the Privy Council, he
was refused permission to appear by Counsel, and Eccles'
election was confirmed. But in Spring, 171 1; things had
changed ; the Tories had swept the elections in England in
1710, and the second Duke of Ormonde was now Lord Lieu-
tenant. With him came Sir Constantine Phipps as Lord
Chancellor. He had won high fame at the English Bar as
counsel for Dr. Sacheverel at the historic state trial, and next
year was honoured with the Irish Seals. He was High
Church, High Tory, and Jacobite, and became the recognised
TEMP. QUEEN ANNE, 1702-1714 139
leader of those principle's liere. The great majority of the
gentry, nearly all the middle classes, and the upper artizans
were predominantly Protestant and opposed to the Pretender.
To all these Phipps became suspect ; he added early to their
suspicions by directing a nolle proscpii of the prosecution of
a gentleman who had written a Memoir of the Chevalier of
St. George, and by refusing to permit the decorating of the
statue of King William in College Green, which had already
become an annual festivity and a tribute to the pious and
immortal memory, not unknown even in Queen Victoria's
time, and even in that of Anne not always unpro-
vocative of riot. For the Roman Catholic citizens
and the mass of the mob were partial to Phipps
and the Pretender ; though even the mob had a good
sprinkling of the orange weaveis of St. Werburgh's and
the Coombe. With the Chancellor, Vesey, Archbishop of
Tuam, acted as Lord Justice. He had no reason to welcome
the Pretender, for when James II. was here, he had to fly
froin Tuam for his life with an episcopal famii}^ of twelve
children.
So when, at the Easter Assembh' of 171 1, the Lord Mayor
and Aldermen for the third time superseded Constantine and
elected Alderman Barlow, the Privy Council, on Constan-
tine's petition, ordered the Lord Mayor and aldermen to
answer, and directed both sides to appear by counsel before
the full Council board. The answer is signed by fourteen
aldermen, including Eccles, Lord Mayor. It claimed the
right of election to be in them, which would, it said, be no
election if they were compelled to choose the senior ; and,
traversing the immemorial usage alleged, it denied there was
any irregularity in electing Alderman Barlow, unless, indeed,
it added rather sarcastically, not electing the petitioner be one.
The argument lasted two days. Forster, the Recorder, acting
as counsel for the Corporation. The Privy Council affirmed
the byelaw of ancientry and sunmiarily disappro\'ed Barlow.
Archbishop King, who sat at the hearing, writes to Swift,
who was in London, an impartial account of the trial. 7 He
• T5th May, 171;. Scott's Swift, Vol. XV., 448.
140 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
says the case turned on the most slender point of the old bye-
law ; that as Archbishop of Dublin he thought he should
support the city, and as the byelaw had been passed, not to
coerce the electors, but to compel reluctant mayors to serve,
and had frequently been disregarded, he warned his colleagues
that the decision would beget ill blood, and that it was not
the Duke of Ormonde's interest to clash with the city ; but
they said they didn't foresee any hurt to his grace, " and I
pray God it may not." " You must know,'' he says, " this
is made a party affair, as Constantine sets up for a high
churchman, which I never heard of before ; but whoever has
a private quarrel and finds himself too weak, becomes a
partizan, and makes his private a public quarrel."
The Privy Council thus drew first blood. But in the whole
three years' war we discern through the mist a strong,
skilful, and resourceful hand guiding the Corporation. This was
Forster's, the Recorder. He had been made Solicitor-General
by Lord Wharton in 1708, vice Sir Richard Levinge, who was
a Tory, but displaced on the return of the Tories, when Sir
Richard became Attorney- General. Forster keeps in the
background in this conflict, but his knowledge and his spirit
animated it throughout. Accepting the decision in favour of
the byelaw, a full assembly was convened for the following
day.**
All the aldermen and all the Commons were summoned,
and the byelaw was formally repealed. The Privy Council
two years afterwards alleged that this meeting was tumul-
tously ushered in with great noise and clamour, that there
was a cry of " Poper}^ Popery," and " that the bvelaw was
repealed as Popish, though made in the reign of Queen Eliza-
beth." But the aldermen proceeded with all constitutional
forms. To make Constantine again legally eligible they
rescinded an ordei by which some time before he had been
placed above the cushion " and to wear a scarlet gown " ;
then they proceeded to the second election, at wliich Con-
stantine, Barlow, and Alderman Samuel Cooke were duly put
in nomination ; Barlow was re-elected Lord Mayor. In the
*' See Eccles' Statement. Gilbert's Calendar, 7, 564.
TEMP. QUEEN ANNE, 1702-1714 i^i
above cited letter Arcbbisliop King strongly deprecated the
summary action of the city as provocative, and the Privy
Council, angrily regarding it as such, and " a contempt of
authority," again disapproved. The aldermen proceeded to
a third election, this time nominating Constantine, Cooke,
and Ralph Gore ; there were only three votes for Constan-
tine, against 16 for Cooke, who was declared duly elected, but
who in turn was duly disapproved by the Privy Council. A
fourth election followed in August, when Constantine's name
was dropped, and Alderman T. Ouin, Samuel Walton, and
John Page were put forward. Page being declared Lord
Mayor with seventeen votes, but confirmation was again
withheld. At a fifth election, also held in August, Alderman
Gibbons was nominated with Quin and Walton, and receiving
fifteen votes, was chosen, with the same fate, however, as his
predecessors. But the aldermen were not daunted. At a
sixth election they nominated Walton again, now with
Gibbons and Benjamin Barton, and Walton was elected with
thirteen votes. This was on the 31st August. The Privy
Council once more declined to approve, and as Michaelmas
was now in sight, when the existing Lord Mayor Eccles'
tenure would cease, and no one yet appointed to succeed liim,
the Corporation, despairing of the Privy Council, addressed
a petition to Queen Anne herself. It is a very able document
— firm, dignified, and loyal. After reciting the Essex Rules
vesting the election of the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs in the
Lord Mayor and aldermen, and in no one else, it states that
so careful has the city been in the election of its Lord Mayor
that, since 1672 to within a few months past, no elected Lord
Mayor was ever disapproved by the Privy Council, save
when, in 1687, T3a"connell, having superseded the ancient
charters, refused approval in favour of Sir Thomas Hackett ;
" yet your petitioners," it proceeds, " have been so unfor-
tunate as to have been obliged five several times since Easter
to proceed to a new choice by reason the Council were pleased
so often to disapprove the person elected, though no objection
had been made to their sufficiency or loyalty, they being all
educated in the Church of Ireland as by law established, and
142 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
men who had always shown hearty affection toward-". Your
Majesty's Government." Referring to the rule of seniority,
the pretext for the original disapproval of Barl(m% the
petitioners set forth three precedents in 1672, 1674, and 1696,
in which the byelaw^ had not been followed, and implore Hot
Majesty's generous interposition that the right of electing
magistrates for the city may not be turned into a nomination
by the Government and the Council. " Placing entire re-
liance in the Queen's justice and goodness," they repudiate
any disrespect or opposition to the Government placed over
them, and state their willingness to make any compliance
" consistent with oui right and freedom of election and the
oaths we have taken to maintain the liberties of Your
Majesty's most ancient and loyal city." This petition was
forwarded to the Lord Lieutenant, Ormonde, b}^ Eccles, the
Lord Mayor, for transmission to the Queen. The Duke re-
plied on 7th September, saying he had sent it into England.
But Michaelmas was imminent, so, pending the Queen's
decision, a seventh election was had, at which Alderman
Pearson with Gibbons and Barton were nominated, and Pear-
son elected with thirteen votes, only to be disapproved like
the six that went before him. Michaelmas was now at hand,
and no new Lord Mayor.
The aldermen refused to be defeated. On the 27th Sep-
tember they proceeded to the eighth election. To emphasise
their attitude, they again put forward Constantine along
with Ralph Gore, who had already been nominated at the
third election, and, with these, x\lderman Robert Mason.
There were twenty votes, of which two went for Constantine,
and eighteen for Gore.
Michaelmas had come, and no Lord Mayor. On the ist
October the Corporation met and affirmed " the undoubted
right of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Dublin
to elect to the Mayoralty such of the aldermen as they sh;dl
think most fit, without legard to seniority or juniority."
For this resolution twenty voted ; there were only two voices
contra. At last the Government caved in. Whether they
had a hint from London, or as yet dared not contemplate
TEMP. QUEEN ANNE, 1702-1714 143
anything so dreadful as a city without a head, they approved
Alderman Gore, who became Lord Mayor from Michaelmas,
1711-1712. The year's campaign thus ended with a decisive
victory for the Corporation.
The Privy Council, however, yielded with a bad grace.
We have not involved the story with the case of the sheriffs,
but should state that at five of the above elections the
Council had disapproved the choice of the sheriffs along with
the mayor ; and at the sixtli, wdiile giving way as to the
Mayoraltv, they disapproved as Sheriff Daniel Falkiner, the
banker, though without impeachment and chosen unani-
mously, and Walker, though chosen by sixteen votes to live,
and a seventh election for the Shrievalt}^ became necessary.
The war was renewed next year ; this campaign was shorter
than the last, but sharp. From the lecord of May, 17 12, it
would seem there had been some abortive meetings at Easter,
for it recites — " former elections having been rejected." At
this May assembly our old friend Constantine was again put
forward with Barlow, who had been twice, and Cooke, who
had been once disapproved, as we have seen, in the previous
year ; but he had only a single vote, and Barlow, with thir-
teen, was chosen Lord Mayor. With him were named
Sheriffs Glegg and Somerville, who had both been disap-
proved as such in 1711. This election the Privy Council
regarded as a further disrespect to the Government, and in-
dignantly refused approval. But the aldermen stood to tlieir
guns. In July they again nominated Constantine with Cooke
and Mason ; again Constantine had only one vote. Cooke
had fourteen, and was elected, w'ith Bradshaw and Aldrich
as Sheriffs.
The Privy Council at last approved of Cooke, who duly
became Lord Mayor from Michaelmas, 1712 to 1713 ; but
Aldrich was angrily disapproved for the Shrievalty. In their
address to the Queen next year the Council say — " With the
same spirit of obstinacy the aldermen had also certified one
Aldrich for Sheriff, who had been twice before disapproved,
and is a factious person and a dispenser of libels against the
Government," but they omit to state that they had them-
144 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
selves first disapproved such a nominee as Thomas Somer-
ville, against whom there was no objection, and who was a
gentleman of substance, and very many others who were
equally without reproach.
The laurels of this campaign were again with the Corpora-
tion, though their victory in the person of Samuel Cooke was.
as the sequel proved, not so great as they had supposed ; and
possibly the Council in approving him knew what they were
about.
The third campaign opened in April, 171 3, at their Easter
Assembly. Lord Mayor Cooke presiding. Poor Constantine
was once more put in nomination, this time with Mason and
John Stoyte, yet again he had one vote only. Stoyte carried
seventeen. Stoyte's return with the Sheriffs is certified to
the Privy Council with the signatures of nineteen aldermen,
including Cooke, thougli his name appears only third. As
Stoyte was the junior of the three, the Council, "therefore,
and for other good reasons," conceived him unfit, and dis-
approved. There was a new Assembly in May, at which
Lord Mayor Cooke appeared in a new character. He took
from his pocket a piece of paper with the names of Sir
William Fownes, Constantine, and Mason on it, and proposed
them for election. Then the storm broke out ; seventeen
aldermen insisted on first putting the question whether any
of the three should be elected. Fownes was objected to as
having already served as Mayor in 1708, and Constantine as
having been already eight times rejected by great majorities ;
and a formal vote was proposed whether Constantine should
be " put in election." Cooke refused to put the question, and,
declaring if they would not proceed to his three nominations
he would allow no other choice, he rose to go. They implored
him to remain ; he refused. Then they told him if he wilfully
withdrew they would proceed for the purpose for which they
were duly summoned, and that they were almost unanimous
for electing Adderman Pleasants for the ensuing year. The
Lord Mayor withdrew nevertheless ; seventeen aldermen
remained. After waiting some hours in hope Cooke would
return, they sent to him, expressing their extreme reluctance
TEMP. QUEEN ANNE, 1702-1714 145
to proceed in his absence without absolute necessity. He ■
replied that he would not come ; so the seventeen thereupon
elected Pleasants unanimously, and returned his name under
their seventeen signatures. Of course the Privy Council dis-
approved. The}'^ advised the whole case to be argued before
them. Then, after solemn debate on the 3rd and 4th Septem-
ber, they declared the election of Pleasants void, and directed
a new election ; and, on the nth September, sent to Lord-
IMayor Cooke two resolutions affirming the right of the Lord
Mayor to nominate three candidates, one of whom must be
chosen, and that the proceeding in the Lord Mayor's absence
was illegal and a breach of the Rules of 1672. The question
what punishment was to be meted to the seventeen recusants
was reserved ; they seemed to forget that there was no Star
Chamber now. The aldermen, still undaunted, called a new
Assembly on the 21st September, and putting forward Con-
stantine with Mason and Alderman Thomas Bolton, returned
the latter as Lord Mayor by eighteen votes to two, he being
the junior and one of the seventeen. With him they again
named the " factious person," Aldrich, as Sheriff, and certi-
fied to the Privy Council on 24th September with the signa-
tures of twenty-two aldermen, including Cooke, who signs
second. The Privy Council were incensed ; they directed
that the seventeen recusants should be prosecuted, ordering
an immediate new election, for Michaelmas was again at
hand.
Cooke accordingly re-summoned the aldermen on the 25th,
and offered them as candidates Constantine, Mason, and
French ; but the meeting refused to vote for any of them.
Ormonde had now gone, and the Duke of Shrewsbur}^ had
just become Viceroy. The Privy Council some time before
had sent over their statement of the case to the Government
in London. It waL not so successful as they had hoped. On
the 27th September they received a letter from the Secretary
of State, Lord Bolingbroke, suggesting as a compromise that
the Loid Mayor should nominate a new person vice Sir
William Fownes, whom the aldermen had rejected as a past
Lord j\Iayor. Professing high satisfaction at tliis suggestion,
L
146 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
the Council directed the aldermen to attend on Michaelmas
Day itself, and, reading Bolingbroke's letter, invited them to
act accordingly. They acceded to the plan as one whicli
" would effectually quiet all their disorders," and forthwith
assembled to carry it out. Sir Samuel Cooke, however, still
in the Lord Mayor's chair, put forward again Constantine,
Mason, and French, the three who had been rejected only
four days before, alleging French to be a new person, in place
of Fownes, in accordance with Bolingbroke's compromise.
The aldermen regarded this as a mere pretence ; they
besought Cooke to be moderate, and stated their willingness
to accept any other nominee whom they had not previously
rejected ; but Cooke persisted, and the meeting broke up,
facing the catastrophe of Michaelmas come and Michaelmas
gone and no Lord Mayor of Dublin.
On ist October the Privy Council in deep chagrin sent their
statement to the Queen. Petulant in tone, and partial as to
facts, it sadly contrasts with the petition of the Corporation,
which soon after followed it. It asserts the usages and law,
but without adducing proof or precedent, and bitterly
inveighs against the obstinacy of the aldermen. Yet it had
high sanction, signed by the Lord Chancellor, Sir Constantine
Phipps, and Vesey, Archbishop of Tuam ; Sir Richard Cox,
Lord Chief Justice ; Sir Robert Doyne, Lord Chief Baron ;
the Earls of Inchiquin, Abercorn, and Kerry ; the Bishops
of Meath, Kildare, and Raphoe. With the statement they
forwarded the opinions of some of the Judges and all the
Crown Counsel in favour of the Lord Mayor's prerogative
claim, and his right to continue in office till his successor was
regularly appointed and approved. Sir Constantine Phipps
wrote privately to Swift, asking his assistance with Harley
and Bolingbroke, and appeals to have had a reply which
pleased him, for he writes again to Swift in Octobei , thanking
him effusively foi " burning his fingers on his behalf ; " but
though Swift did then secure for the Chancellor's son a good
office he was seeking, he writes the week after to Arch-
deacon Walls — " Your Mayor's squabble we regard as much
here as if you sent me an account of your little son playing
TEMP. QUEEX ANNE, 1702-1714 147
at cherry stones. I received the Lord Justice's representa-
tion sent to the Queen, and have said more on it than anyone
else would, and I hope the new Lord Lieutenant will put an
end to the dispute."
• Still the aldermen stood staunch. They refused to recognise
Cooke as Lord Mayor, and, as the Privy Council had declared
his presence essential for every legal assembly and
corporate act, they refused to exercise their corporate
functions, to hold assemblies, to open the City Court at the
Tholsel, or to have meetings of the Governors of the Blue
Coat. Under counsel's advice the outgoing sheriffs refused
to exercise office. These were Thomas Bradshaw and Edward
Somerville. The Government ordered them still to act, and
directed them both to be prosecuted. This was the inter-
■ regnum. Thereupon the aldermen also addressed a petition
to the Queen. Signally able, moderate, learned, and
exhaustive, it was supported by proofs and precedents which
seem irrefragable and conclusive. The Recorder and three
aldermen weie sent with it to London to argue the cause and
negotiate with the Government. They went at their own
expense, for they could not in the interregnum touch the city
funds. They would appear to have made in their mission a
considerable stay. The petition cites the royal charters of
Dublin, of Henry IIL, Edward IIL, Henry IV., and Henry
VL, giving choice of the Mayor to the citizens of Dublin. It
sets forth a byelaw in the time of Richard III. providing that
the Jurees. the old name for the aldermen, should, on each
Holyrood Day, name one of themselves as Mayor for a 3^ear
from Michaelmas, and the new Rules of 1672, enacting that
the election of Lord Mayor and Sheriffs should be for ever
thereafter only by the Lord Mayor and aldermen, eight being
present. A result of a search thiough all the records for
the trace of any rule giving the Lord Mayor alone the right
to nominate three, of whom one must be chosen, showed that
none such existed. By accumulated instances it is shewn that
though the Lord ^Mayor in form always put forward these three
names to the Assemblv, this was always done after a con-
ference with the aldermen, and that even then the right of the
148 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Assembly to reject the seniors or to substitute a new name
was repeatedly recognised. The petition shows further that
Sir Samuel Cooke was himself a subscribing party to the
order of October, 17 ii, which declares the undoubted right
" of the Lord Mayoi and aldermen " to elect to the Mayoralty
such of the aldermen as they thiak lit, without regard to
seniority ; and several other orders of similar purport to
which he is a signatory are also put in evidence.
Cooke's assumption to remain in office till his prerogative
claims are acceded to is refuted with equal force. It is shown
that the entries of elections always mentioned that the
Mayor and Sheriffs are elected and approved to serve for one
year only. A bye-law of 13 James I., is cited, enacting that
no one should be continued Mayor two years successively,
and though in the distraction of the lebellion of 1641, Smith
was continued Mayor for four successive years, the entries
showed he was duly elected at the close of each ; whilst all
the records proved a constant usage that the jMayor should
hold office only to the morrow of ^Michaelmas, when his
successor was sworn in, save when Michaelmas was on
Saturday, and then he only held till the Monday follov.'ing,
the only case to the contrary being that of Hackett aforesaid,
when Tyrconnell was Lord Deputy.
The extracts from the charters and rolls are attested with
a precision which would do credit to our Court of Chancery
to-day. Certiiicates are added : one, by eight ex-Lord
Mayors, testifying that they always conferred with their
brethren, the aldermen, and had their approbation for
their three nominees, and that no Mayor within memor}^
had ever held over after Michaelmas ; another, b}^
twelve aldermen below the cushion, testifying that the
right of nominating the three was always in practice in the
Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and not in the Lord Mayor
alone. And there is a sworn deposition of Sir John Eccles,
who served 1610-1611, to the same effect, in which he adds,
that when at the close of his year, his successor, Ralph Gore,
had not been approved on the Monday after Michaelmas,
which had fallen on Saturday, he threw off his gown, laid
TEMP. QUEEN ANNE, 1702-1714 149
aside rod, swoid, and mace, and walked the streets to the
Tholsel as a private man.
The petitioners, speaking throughout in most respectful
and loyal language, protest they have no other view than a
faithful discharge of tlieir trust, and of their oaths, to main-
tain their rights and charters derived from the Crown, and
under the royal prerogative, and they deeply deprecate the
course by which " the city has been thrown into disorder
and confusion, and its sessions, assemblies, and courts have
remained ever since unattended."
If Cooke and the Privy Council were right, it is plain that
the franchise of choosing the civic officers would be illusory,
and this, with the power of perpetual disapproval in the
Crown, would give the appointment of j\Iayor and Sheriffs
to the Government of the day, whenever the Lord Mayor
was subservient. But the appeals to the Crown were never
actually decided. We know how, in the last year of Queen
Anne, the disputes between Harley and Bolingbroke had
become acute, and even Swift, dear friend of both, failed to
reconcile them ; this hastened the Queen's death, and when
the year began to wane, on the ist August, she died. Death
was the deus ex machina that severed the knot which was
strangling the mimicipal life of Dublin. The Jacobites were
routed in London and Dublin alike, the Hanoverians ruled
supreme. Whilst Harley was being impeached, Lord Chan-
cellor Phipps retired to the Middle Temple, and resumed
private practice at the Bar. All things were changed. At
Michaelmas, 1714, the interregnum ceased, and James
Barlow, the thrice rejected elect and original casus belli, was
knighted and duly installed Lord Mayor of Dublin.
The war ended in conquest by the Corporation. Sir John
Forster was made Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas,
and John Rogerson, Sir John's son. Recorder, in his stead.
To Forster the city voted ^500 " as a mark of favour to their
late worthy Recorder, who, by his abilities, vigilance, and
steady adherence to the true interests of the city, was highly
instrumental in preserving its liberties, to the neglect of his
private concerns, and the considerable detriment of bis
150 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
private fortune/" and his portrait, painted at the expense of
the city, was ordered to be placed in the Tholseh He had
also a lease from the city of the lands and house at
Donnycamey, Clontarf, where he resided. These passed
later in the century to Lord Charlemont, on which he formed
his beautiful demesne of Marino, and which are now in
the possession of the Christian Brothers. The new
House of Commons, in 1716, voted to him, and to the nine-
teen survivors of the twenty stalwarts, and to Somerville,
the surviving sheriff, who had refused to continue in office,
contrary to law, the Thanks of the House, for their great
virtue in defending the rights of the city. £900 was voted
in the Assembly to the Aldermen and Sheriffs to defray their
costs of the late litigation before the Privy Council, the
Queen's Bench, and in England. The disapproved Lord
Mayors elect, Stoyte, Pleasants, and Bolton, were successively
placed in the civic chair. Barkey, Quaile, Wilkinson, Forbes,
Curtis and Dickson, followed as Lord Mayors in each
successive year up to 1723, and Somerville had a special
grant of £200. Sir Samuel Cooke was indicted before the
Assembly for having betrayed the city, and acted as the
instrument of arbitrary power. He defended himself ably,
relying on the opinions of the Privy Council and Crown
lawyers, but after an elaborate hearing, the sentence was
that he " be disfranchised from all the franchises and
liberties of the city, be henceforth rejected and taken as a
foreigner, and removed from the place of alderman.''
It may be thought unreasonable thus at length to wake
the echoes of this long sleeping strife, and to call from
oblivion these phantoms of our city worthies long ago for-
gotten, but to Blue Coat Hospitallers, the story is acutely
interesting. To us the actors are not phantoms. These
names that have shifted now before us like colours of the
kaleidoscope, are all inscribed in living letters on the records
of the meetings of our governors in those stirring years. The
seventeen recusants— Sir John Eccles, Sir John Rogerson^
Sir Ralph Gore, Sir James Barlow, Thos. Quin, Samuel
Walton, John Page, Benjamin Barton, John Pearson, John
TEMP. QUEEN ANNE, 1702-1714 151
Stoyte, Tliomas Bolton, Anthony Barkey, William Quaile,
Thomas Wilkinson, George Forbes, Thos. Curtis, and
William Dickson, who, with Thomas Pleasants, Matthew
Pearson, and Robert Cheatham, made up the twenty stal-
warts, all are living in our Minute Books to-day, as nomi-
nating children, apprenticing pupils, raising ways and means,
managing our estate. Some of them attended almost every
meeting, and the governors of to-day cannot but have a
pride in corporate ancestors, so strong, so firm, and so brave.
They are not wholly dead. Streets of Dublin still record the
names of Rogerson, Fownes, Eccles, Pleasants, and the
names of many of these sleeping combatants still survive in
theii posterity. Phipps is lineal ancestor of the Mulgraves
and Normanbys, and Constantine, first Marquess of Normanby,
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1835. ^^^ wonders if that
Christian name attracted the Chancellor towards his name-
sake, our so oft-re]ected candidate. Vesey, Archbishop of
Tuam and Lord Justice, is lineal ancestor of the Lords de
Vesci. Somerville, the disapproved sheriff, is lineal ancestor
of the Lords Athlumney. Benjamin Barton, the banker,
the disapproved sheriff, is lineal ancestor of the Bartons of
Pollacton, County Carlow. Daniel Falkiner, the banker,
another of the disapproved, is great-great-great-granduncle
of the present writer. Sir Samuel Cooke is ancestor b}^ the
female descent of one of the best country gentlemen of our
day, Thomas Cooke-Trench, late of Millicent, Kildare, who
carried the memory of his fighting forbear in his own gentle
person and name, andjmany a family pedigree in Ireland
would probably trace through others of these civic worthies
of two centuries ago.
[Chairmen and Lord Mayors.
152 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Our Chairmen and Lord ^Mayors in Queen Anne's reign
were: —
1702
1702-3
1703-4
1704-5
1705-6
1706-7
1707-8
1 708-9
1709-10
I 7 1 o- 1 1
1711-12
1712-13
1713-M
Samuel Walton.
Thomas Bell.
John Page.
Francis Stoyte.
Wm. Gibbons
Benj. Burton
John Pearson.
Sir Wm. Fownes.
Charles Forrest.
John Eccles
Sir Ralph Gore
Sir Samuel Cooke.
Intereenura.
The evolution of the City was somewhat stayed b}^ the
poHtical contest of the three years war, but two of the most
important events in the development of the City were
inaugurated in this reign. The Constitution of the first
Harbour Board, known as the Ballast Office, and the con-
struction of the South Wall by Sir John Rogerson, which was
continued by the City so as to enclose the gulf between
Townsend street and Ringsend.
^ The above nairative is drawn from the original records which are given
in full in Gilbert's Calendar, Vol VI., and Appendix to Vol. VII.
L 153 ]
CHAPTER VII.
TEMP. GEORGE I., 1714-1727
Queen Anne died ist August, 1714. The old regime had
resumed here, as we have seen, with the new reign. The lirsl
act of the City Assembly was to present Archbishop King
with the freedom of the city in a gold box, a distinction then
only conferred on Lord Lieutenants or personages of highest
rank or celebrity. The Archbishop was now the presiding
member of the Government in the absence of the Duke of
Shrewsbur}^, the new Lord Lieutenant. The meetings of our
governors were resumed in November, under Sir James
Barlow, Chairman and Lord [Mayor ; their first business was
to complete the admission of forty new boys, as arranged
with the Corporation. In the next few years their work is
routine, and demands no special remark ; but we note next
year nominations of boys by the famous Earl of Galway, who
was then the Lord Justice. This was Henry, ]\Iarquess de
Ruvigny. He was one of the French Protestant exiles, and
had come to England as representative of all the Protestant
churches of France. He was a great soldier of William HI,
for whom he fought at the Battle of Aughrim, and by whom
he was given an earldom in our peerage. In 1716, as we have
already mentioned, our chaplain and schoolmaster, Charles
Carr, became Lord Bishop of Killaloe, and Rev. Richard
Gibbons was appointed in his place. In 1717 some important
additions to our Board were made — Major-General Frederick
Hamilton, who, dying a few years after, left the Hospital a
legacy of £300 ; Forster, our late Recorder, who now
rejoined as Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. At the
same time the Presidents of the College of Physicians were
made ex-officio governors. But far the most important
154 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
accession was that of Archbishop King himself at tlie special
invitation of the governors, for he was perhaps the greatest
governor the Blue Coat has had ; and almost up to his death
in 1729 he gave it a good share of his marvellous organizing
power and generous liberality, which far outweighed the
contentiousness, which made him some enemies, not the less
because it was always directed against abuses, and in almost
all cases prevailed. In 1718 he sent the Lord Mayor a cheque
for /500 as a gift to the School. In the next year a bill was
brought into the Commons by our Recorder, John Rogerson,
who was M.P. for the city and Solicitor-General, for regula-
ting the streets, and he was directed b}^ the Government, of
which the Archbishop was a leading member, to insert a clause
for limiting and licensing the coaches and sedans of the city.
The Archbishop was also then a leader in the Lords ; more
than half the peers who attended then were bishops. This bill,
6 Geo. I.,c. 15, reciting the recent growth of the city, provided
for licensing fifty more hackney coaches and forty more
chairs, with an annual tax of £1 5s. od. each, to be applied
to the support of the Blue Coat Hospital for six years. This
increased its income by £180 ; and, thanking the Ciovern-
ment, the Board increased the number of boys to 180, the
highest mark they had hitherto reached. When, seven years
after, this benefit had expired, it was renewed in another
form. In 1727 the James's Street Workhouse was recon-
structed by I Geo. II., c. 27, under commissioners who may
be regarded as precursors of the South Dublin Union, and
perhaps the most distinguished Poor Law Guardians on
record ; they included the chief magnates in Church and
State, members of the Government of both Houses of Parlia-
ment, and the high civic dignitaries, Archbishop King being
nearly first on the list. One of our statutory sources of
income was the tax on the hackney coaches and chairs, which
was now remodelled. The new license duties and annual tax
were to be paid to the Commissioners, of which the revenue
of one hundred and fifty coaches and one hundred and sixty
chants was allocated to the Workhouse, and that of fifty
coaches and forty sedans to the Blue Coat School. This aid
TEMP. GEORGE I., 1714-1727 155
was continued to us for forty-four years, when it was taken
away by 11 (!S: 12 Geo. III., c. 11, and given to the Rotunda
Hospital. Some of the accounts show more than £200 paid
in a single year. The Archbishop was now Treasurer of the
Erasmus Smith's Board, and his practical wisdom saw the
policy, so often ignored in the history of beneficence, of
making cognate charities work in alliance rather than in over-
lappmg machinei}'. In 1723 he formed a Committee of
King's Hospital to confer with a committee of the Erasmus
vSmith's board, and these, in July, in his own palace in St.
Sepulchre's, agreed on a scheme of ten clauses by which the
Erasmus Smith's board should contribute £300 towards the
building of an infirmary in King's Hospital, which was sorely
needed, the Hospital to receive from time to time any number
of boys up to twenty nominated by the Erasmus Smith's
board, to be maintained in all respects under the same regula-
tions as the other boys on our foundation. For these the
Erasmus Smith's board are to provide the necessary furniture
and to pay quarterly a rateable proportion of the expenses
of the School. They also undertake the apprenticing of their
twenty pupils, and to pay £5 a year to our head master ; the
Lord Mayor and the Recorder for the time being are to be
standing governors of the Eiasmus Smith's school,
four of whose members reciprocally are to be standing
governors of the Blue Coat ; and the Erasmus Smith's
board undertake to apply to the ensuing session of
Parliament for an Act to ratify the contract. This scheme
was confirmed by our Board at their September meeting, and
our seal affixed to the heads of the bill brought in under the
Archbishop's auspices, and passed that session, during which
he was an assiduous attendant in the Lords. This statutory
alliance has now existed for more than 180 years, for it was
fully recognised by the Municipal Corporations Act of 1840,
and was never more faithfully carried out than in the late
long years in which Vice-Chancellor Chatterton has presided
at the Erasmus Smith's Board.
This Bill was passed in the session of 1723-24 as an
Act for further application of the rents given by Erasnms
156 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL .
Smith for charitable purposes. The clauses affecting the
Blue Coat will be found in Appendix B, It contains a clause
empowering our governors to make building leases of their
waste lands in Dublin for ninety-nine years ; our charter
limited the term to forty-one. This valuable power, hidden
away in the unnumbered sections of a local Act dealing
with another charity, has been unnoticed in the indexes to
the statutes and text books, and has been unnoticed by our
governors for the past tifty years, during which they have
believed it necessary to apply to Chancery or Charity Com-
missioners for leave to grant building leases. The only clue
given in our minute books is an entry in 1724 of ten guineas
paid to one John Dexter, " for his extraordinary trouble in
London in soliciting a clause in a late Act of Parliament " to
the above effect, without further indication of what statute
it was.
Our records of this time include the names of manv distin-
guished persons nominating boys : — The Duchess of Grafton,
the Lord Lieutenant's wife, in 1722 ; she was wife of Charles
Fitzroy, the second Duke, and giand-daughter of the Duke of
Beaufort ; Lady Carteret, wife of the Lord Lieutenant in
1725 ; and Chief Justice Whitshed, Swift's prosecuting
judge ; Presidents of the College of Physicians, in succession
Doctors Grattan, Jammett, and Mitchell ; and several
nominations by the \'estries of the city churches, whose
recommendations were always honoured by our governors.
Under the Erasmus Smith's alliance, the much needed
Infirmary of our old Hospital was built. The energy and
example of the Archbishop was visible everywhere. Alder-
man Quaile, who had been our Lord Mayor and Chairman in
1719, now, himself , expended £500 on the infirmary, and old
Sir John Rogerson's legacy of £100 was added. The restora-
tion of our chapel was also taken in hand, to which Dr.
Daniel, the Dean of Armagh, contributed £50, and a charity
sermon preached by Dr. Maule, Bishop of Cloyne, presumably
at the Archbishop's instance, realised £60 towards this
object. Hitherto there had been no supervision of the
Hospital accounts ; and a drastic order, reciting that there
TEMP GEORGE I., 1714-1727 157/
was no method of charging the agent with his receipts of
casual revenue, is made in the Archbishop's presence that
one of the governors should be annually chosen as Treasurer,
he to give his discharges for all contributions in support of
the Hospital ; all tradesmen's bills to be confirmed by a
standing committee. An order also directs that the chaplain
shall in future catechise the boys weekly, as provided by the
charter ; another that each of the 180 boys should have a
Bible ; and another that a sufficient number of the x\rchbishop
of Tuam's (Dr. Edward S\-nge's) exposition of the Church
Catechism should be bought for the boys ; a list of all the
benefactors of the School from the beginning, with a proper
preamble, is directed to be made, and hung on tables in the
Hall of the Hospital ; and this was carried out and continued
for years. An inventory of all goods and chattels in the house
is to be made out and continued from time to time, and
examined by the Committee periodically. Had this order
been maintained, we should possess many memorials now,
historic pictures, whole libraries of books, which have long
since vanished. It was found there were now 188 boys, occu-
pymg twenty-nine rooms, with twenty-nine more for officers
and servants, beside the Hall Chapel and schoolrooms, and
other such buildings. Finally, this committee are directed
to inspect all the laws of the house and the regulations affect-
mg the officers and servants, and to report what further
laws they recommend for the good government of the
Hospital. The Archbishop was present at the election of an
additional schoolmaster m 1725. Our chaplain, with our
increased numbers, needed assistance. Mr. John Connell was
elected. We can see the strong reforming hand in the minute
which orders that the schoolmaster in future bring neither
wife nor child to lodge or diet or to be a charge or incumbrance
upon this house ; that he apply himself wholly to the busi-
ness of the School, and teach no other boys, either at home
or abroad ; and that he attend them constantly to church or
chapel, so that they behave themselves reverently there, and
orderly and decently at their meals. That " in future " in
the above has a latent lumiour, suggesting how things had
158 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
previously gone on, and it is more pointed by the fact that the
Archbishop was a stern bachelor to the end. He last attended
our Board in April, 1726, when he announced a benefaction
of £500 from Lady Midleton, sent by her to himself : she was
widow of Lord Chancellor Allen Broderick, first Lord Midleton.
Oh, that Archbishop King had been with us for many a year
before and after ! His work at the Blue Coat, which was but
a fringe of his vast official labour, might further illustrate the
story of his life as told by Dr. George Stokes in the latest
volume from his luminous pen, Some Worthies of the Irish
Church, edited by Rev. H. Lawlor in 1900.
A fresh wreath has just been placed on his memory here.
By the munificence of Lord Iveagh, the north choir aisle of
St. Patrick's Cathedral had a few years since been restored
and relighted by the removal of the darkening organ loft
back towards the choir. Then the fine memorial to the late
Dean Jellett was erected in the eastern window, and the old
chapel of St. Peter, which formed this part of the aisle, was
reconstituted. The side lights in the northern wall of this
chapel are formed by two arches, each with two lancets.
Those in the eastern arch are the memorial windows to
Provost Salmon. The second lancet of the other arch, the
collateral descendants of Archbishop King, Sir Charles
Simeon King, of Corrard, and Sophia, his wife, have, at the
invitation of Dean Bernard and the Chapter, this year filled
with a beautiful memorial window to the memory of their
noble ancestor. It shows St. Peter receiving the keys above,
and addressing the multitude on the Day of Pentecost below.
The inscription records the Archbishop's connection with
the Cathedral as Chancellor and Dean. In the lancet close
by, to the left, posteri memores of Archbishop Usher have
similarly erected a memorial window to the great Primate,
shewing above St. Peter named Cephas by Christ, and his
release from prison below. On the opposite side of the choir
aisle is Swift's fierce inscription over Schomberg's grave.
In this illustrious company we recall the days when these,
the two greatest Deans of St. Patrick's in the past, worked
as contemporaries, and yet we are reminded how different
TEMP. GEORGE I., 1714-1727 159
were their methods, though both were masterful. This
memorial has an interesting link with the Blue Coat, for
Sir Charles Kmg, who erected it, is son of Sir James Walker
King, second baronet, who was once our Chaplain and
Head Master, and grandson of Sir Abraham Bradley King,
our long time Governor and twice our Chairman, as hereafter
shewn. All four lancets illustrate scenes in St. Peter's life,
and have been beautifully designed by C. L. Kempe, Esq.,
as conceived by Dean Bernard.
We have curious entries at this period illustrating the
working of the New Penal Laws. One in 1721 records that
judgment was had in the Common Pleas by default against
Pierce Butler, a Papist, for ;{5oo, for taking upon him the
guardianship of a minor, and the penalt}^ was awarded to the
Blue Coat. The Recorder is asked to give directions for
enforcing it ; next year Mr. Butler petitioned the governors for
a remission, and a committee was appointed to treat with
him for a settlement. They appear to have forgiven the
penalty, for our accounts of casual revenue show nothing
received on this. But a few years after, in 1729, we have
record of a legacy of Henry Turner, Esq., " bequeathed for
education of children in the Popish religion," and adjudged
by the Court of Chancery to be for superstitious uses. One
moiety is ordered to be paid to the Blue Coat Hospital, and
the other to the Green Coat in Cork. Our half, £956, was
duly paid.
The Archbishop sent us, under the Erasmus Smith alliance,
four \'ery eminent governors, one the most illustrious man of
his day here — Jonathan Swift, — the Earl of Abercorn,
Viscount Charlemont, and the Right Hon. Marmaduke
Coghill. Lord Abercorn and Swift were old friends, though
the intimacy had cooled. Twelve years before, when Swift
was the idol of London society, courted by the Ministry for
the political aid of his matchless pamphlets and pasquinades,
by Dukes and Duchesses for his influence with Harley, the
Prime Minister, by the wits of the town for his startling genius,
Lord Abercorn had sought his advocacy for an object he had
then much at heart. He was James Hamilton, eighth Earl
i6o FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
of Abercorn, and was then seeking from the Court of France
the Dukedom of Chatelherault, for which his kinsman the
Duke of Hamilton was as eagerly competing. The claims
were well balanced ; both nobles were descended from the
Earl of Arran, Regent of Scotland, on whom the Dukedom
of Chatelherault was confirmed by Henry II. of France in
1548, in the time of the Franco-Scottish Alliance. The
Abercorns were of the strict male line, the Duke claimed
through an elder son ; but the male line was broken when
the Duke of Chatelherault left a daughter sole heir, and this,
Lord Abercorn contended, gave him precedence under the
patent and on the analogy of the Salique law. In
March, 171 2, Swift tells Stella that Lord Abercorn was
wanting him to get him the Dukedom from the
King of France ; " his pretensions were very just ; it's a
great stir getting this Dukedom, but it's only to speak to the
Secretary (Bolingbroke) and get the Duke of Ormonde to
engage in it, and mention the case to Lord Treasurer (Harley) *
and this I shall do ; " and so he did. But soon he was
similarly courted by the rival claimant. The Duchess of
Hamilton knitted him a pocket " with belt and buckles like
a woman's " for a splendid gold snuffbox given him by Col.
Hill, the famous Lady Masham's brother. Then Swift
advised a compromise. It is most amusing to read how each
side wooed him as if he were Prime Minister of Louis XIV.
The Duke shortly after was killed, some said assassinated,
in a duel with Lord Mohun, who was also killed ; but the
Duchess and the Duke's brother, Lord Selkirk, still pressed
the claim. In 1713 Swift writes : — " Lord Abercorn was
here teasing me about his French Duchy, and suspecting me
of partiality to the Hamilton family in such a whimsical
manner that Dr. Pratt (Provost of Trinity College), who was
by, thought he was mad. Then comes in the Earl of Selkirk
(the Duke's brother), whom I had never seen before. He is
going to France to negociate their pretensions to the Duchy
of Chatelherault. He teased me for two hours in spite of my
teeth, and held my hand when I offered to stir ; would have
me engage the Ministry to favour him against Lord Abercorn,
TEMP; GEORGE I., 1714-1727 161
and convince them he had no pretensions ; and concluded
he was sorry I was a greater friend to Abercorn than
Hamilton. I had no patience, and used him with some plain-
ness. Am not I gravely handled between a couple of puppies ?
The Ministers gave me leave to tell the Hamiltons they are
to agree with Abercorn." Swift's mediation met the common
fate of mediators ; he tells Stella " neither Abercorn or Sel-
kirk will now speak with me, I have disobliged both sides."
Strange enough, this Cause Chatelheraidt remained undecided
till our day, when our princely Lord Lieutenant, the first
Duke of Abercorn, brought it to a crisis in the regime of
Napoleon IIL, when the French tribunal finally decided in
favour of the Duke of Hamilton's claim.
Dr. Coghill was also an old friend of Swift's in the Queen
Anne period. The Journa/ to Stella tells how " Dr. Coghill
and I dined by invitation at ]\Irs. Vans' ". For, alas, even
when writing these immortal love letters, Swift was visiting
constantly at the Van Homrighs ; but he takes care never to
mention poor Vanessa's name, suggesting the attraction to
be her mother, Mrs. Van. Coghill was an eminent man, a
Piivy Councillor, M.P. for Dublm University, Chancellor of
the Irish Exchequer, and Judge of the Prerogative Court.
In this latter capacity lies his present chief claim to immor-
tality. In a conjugal suit here he decided that " moderate
chastisement with a switch " of a wife by her lord was within
the male conjugal right. This was very good old Common
Law, having been laid down by husband judges ; but Coghill
was unmarried. He was, at the time of the decision, wooing
a lad}' with some success, but when she heard of his judgment
she cut him at once, and he died an old bachelor. Strange,
too, that this legal question was only decided in our day.
In the last case aigued at the Bar by the Master of the
Rolls, Sir Richard Collins, it was his duty to contend for
the doctrine of moderate chastisement, but Lord Halsbury
closured him peremptorily, and denounced the old dicta as
the theories of a savage age. Coghill was son of Sir J.
Coghill, Master in Chancery, and grand-uncle of the first
of the Coghill baronets.
i62 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
These new governois were all accessions to our Board.
Swift was with us for twelve years, an assiduous attendant
till his infirmities became acute. He at once joined Arch-
bishop Kmg's committees for the infirmary and the reform of
our house and government. These included the restoration
of our chapel, for the Archbishop was a wholesale restorer of
churches, and to the Dean was specially entrusted the altar,
the seats, and the pulpit. We shall have occasion again to
recur to him as a governor.
Our Board had now become the fashion, and was joined
by many of the highest in the land. The Primate, Hugh
Boulter, who then virtually governed in Ireland, became a
governor in 1726, and was a valuable member for many years.
He does not seem to have attended any meeting at which
Archbishop King was present. They were antipathetic both
in politics and in Church affairs. Dr. King being wholly
opposed to his exclusion of all Irishmen from dignities in
Church and State, and his general anti-Irish and somewhat
secular spirit. The Primate had been elevated to Armagli
in 1724, though usage would have pointed rather to the
Archbishop of Dublin. This was about the time of their
memorable first interview, when Dr. King, remaining seated
in his chair, received the Primate, sa.ying, as he answered his
salutation, " You see. Your Grace, I am too old to rise."
About the same time we co-opted Sir Ralph Gore, Chancellor
of the Exchequer, Lord Justice and a baronet. He had just
presented to us a gift of £500 placed in his hands by his
relative General Richard St. George, then the heir of the
Kilkenny family of Woodsgift. St. George was cousin
german of St. George Ashe, Bishop of Clogher, a bosom
friend of Swift, and one of his brilliant coterie of punsters
known as the Castilian Club in the early days of Queen Anne.
Sir Ralph, who lived at Belleisle on Loch Erne, in his diocese,
had married his daughter. Sir Ralph, as will be seen, had
much to do with our after story.
George the First died in June, 1727. In April, John
Rogerson, our Recorder, who had filled that office just for
the term of the King's reign, as Forster had held it during
TEMP. GEORGE I., 1714-1727 163
Queen Anne's reign, was now mada Chief Justice of the
King's Bench. For ten years he had sat at our Board with
his father, old Sir John, till the death of the latter in 1724.
For thn-ty-two years Sir John had been one of our best
governors ; he was a Dublin worthy, and must always be
remembered as one of the chief makers of Dublin as it now
exists.
In 1708 our hrst Ballast or Port and Docks Board
as already mentioned had been formed, as the growing
city required that the river channel should be so deepened
and widened as to allow vessels to come up to the
Custom House without discharging cargoes at Ringsend,
to be carried in boats up the shallow estuar}'-, which
then stretched in the form of an irregular V from the
apex at Essex Bridge to the open sea, over shoals,
sands, and gravel. There was no South or North Wall.
Sir John Rogerson had leases from the city of the southern
coast land, and he offered the Ballast Board to construct a
wall and quay from Lazy PTill to Ringsend, along the foreshore
fronting the line of the present Brunswick Street, if the city
would grant him the intervening land in fee, and the Ballast
Board would allow him the use of the surplus sand and gravel
from which they raised their revenue by ballasting the ships,
and which he needed to raise the low shore behind his sea
wall. This was agreed. This great work occupied many years,
but Sir John lived just to see it completed. It not only
formed our first South Wall, but the raising of the quays
enabled the necessary deepening of the channel, and led to
the construction of the North Wall on the opposite shore.
Sir John's ground, however, left the shore to the west, where
College Street stands, open to the tides, which menaced the
new work, so the city took on itself the continuation of the
wall here, and thus we understand how these southern quays
are still respectively known as Sir John Rogerson's and the
City Quay respectively. The hinter-lands now became a
very valuable heritage, which descended to the new Lord
Chief Justice. He proved one of the most eminent judges
of Ills day. With the Recordership he held the Solicitor-
i64 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
and Attorney-Generalship successively, and was a strong
candidate for the dignity of Lord Chancellor just before he
became Chief Justice. His daughter married Abraham
Crichton, the first Lord Erne, whose successors still inherit
the large property by Liffey side behind and be3''ond the
quays that still hand down the Rogerson name. In the same
year the Corporation undertook the construction of the
North Wall on the opposite shore, on the line of the
present Custom House and steamship quays. x\ll the
slob lands behind, and estuary of the Tolka to the Clontarf
Road was now laid out in lots by the iVssembly. An interest-
ing map of the design and the city order appears in Sir John
Gilbert's Calendar ; it shows a channel left for the Tolka on
the line from Baliybough Bridge to the Clontarf Island still
lying opposite the Clontarf Road, with the allotments as
ordered by Thomas Bolton, Lord Mayor, and our Chairman
in 1717. In these signal advances of Dublin the Blue Coat
played a part ; for the city, in debt for Rogerson's South
Wall, applied to our Board, and obtained from us a loan of
/i,ooo at six per cent.
Our Chairmen, Lord ^Mayors in George I.'s time, were : —
John Stoyte
1715-16
Thos. Bolton ...
1716-17
Anthony Barkey
1717-18
William Quaile
1718-19
Thomas Wilkinson
1719-20
George Forbes
1720-21
Thomas Curtis
1721-22
WiUiam Dickson
1722-23
John Porter
1723-24
John Reyson ...
1724-25
Joseph Kane
1725-26
WiUiam Enipson
1726-27
[ i^^5 ]
CHAPTER VII I.
TEMP. GEORGE II. i7_^7-i744.
The first act of the Board in George II. 's reign was to re-elect
Chief Justice Rogerson : the assembly had chosen Francis
Stoyte, who, like his predecessor, was a Lord Mayor's son,
Recorder in his place.' The Lord Mayors of this period used
to give a ball on each St. Stephen's Night, but in 1728 the
Assembly made an order reciting that great inconveniences
had ensued in late years from the custom, and directed that
it should be discontinued, and that the Lord Mayor for the
time being should pay over twenty guineas to the Blue Coat
School in lieu of his feast ; the Lord Mayors were thus raised
to the level of the Bishops. It is not stated what the incon-
veniences of these revelries were, but the Lord Mayors would
seem to liave made a good bargain by the composition, and
the Blue Coat School certainly gained. In the same year,
1728, Richard Wesley, afterwards first Lord Mornington, and
who had been some time a governor, transmitted to our Board
a legacy of £500, left by the will of his relative, Garret Wesley
of Dangan, in Meath, whose heir and executor he was and
whose surname he took ; for his birth name was Richard
Colley, representative of the Colleys of Castle Carbery. He
was raised to the peerage as Lord Mornington in 1746, and
then altered the surname to Wellesley. By his son Garrett
he was grandfather of the great Marquess Wellesley and his
greater brother, the great Iron Duke. He was one of our most
assiduous governors for years, and his name gives us an his-
torical association to which we gladly hold. In 1729 the
Speaker of the House of Commons, the Right Hon. WilHam
Connolly of Castletown, sat on our Board, but he died in the
^ Gilbert's Calendar 7, 425.
i66 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
following year; and at the same time sat the Lord Chancellor,
Thomas Wyndham, of whom a word presently. In 1730,
after the death of Archbishop King, his successor, Dr.
Hoadley, was co-opted a governor in his stead.
All this led to onr recognition in other public quarters.
The Royal College of Ph57sicians, one of whose members had
attended as our medical oiftcer ever since their recognition of
the School in 1701, now sent us in 1729 a fresh resolution
stating that the President and Fellows, out of regard for the
good and welfare of the Hospital, had transferred their
attendance thereat for the future to Dr. Alexander
McNaghten, as fully qualified for the charge, the President,
Dr. Cope, assuring our Board that on the removal of Dr.
McNaghten by death or otherwise the College would always
take care that our house should be supplied with physicians
as formerly. This was gratefully accepted ; we thus obtained
a permanent doctor who acted without salar}^
The Parliament of the Blue Coat.
The patronage of some of our grandee governors at this
time was not perhaps given without some ulterior object of
their own. In 1729 was laid the foundation stone of the new
Houses of Parliament, on the site of Chichester House, in
College Green, Lord Chancellor Wyndham taking a leading
part in the ceremony. Meanwhile the Houses had not where
to lay their heads : there was no room at Castle or Four
Courts. Lord Carteret being then Lord Lieutenant, the
Government, at the end of 1728, applied to our Board to give
the Houses place in the Hospital in the ensuing session. At
our meeting in November Sir Ralph Gore obtained a Com^-
mittee to consider the question, who reported forthwith,
assigning as " most convenient for the use of Parliament "
the whole ground and first floor of the Hospital and School,
viz., the Great Hall, the Governors' room, with the Clerk's
office, the Chaplain's apartmicnts upstairs, with the two
rooms on the same floor, the several rooms on the side of the
passage leading from the hall to the garden, the Chapel and
the Ste\\ard's apartments upstairs, with the three rooms
TEMP. GEORGE II., 1727-1744 167
opposite same. Thisappro]:)riation the Committee concedes to
be the '" most proper, and which can best be spared with the
least prejudice and inconvenience to this House."' " In the
meantime, the boys," they add, with dehghtful naivete, " may
eate in the Stone Gallery," and that " the chaplain do read
prayers in the school room up two paire stairs." He and the
steward are to provide lodgings " near at hand." The report
ends with a very wise direction that " all avenues " are to be
made up, to prevent the boys interfering with the part of the
Hospital granted to Parliament. The temptation to enter
tlie House prematurely might be too strong even for boys
with a better place to '• eate " in than the Stone Gallery. This
report, however, was adopted unanimously and at once. No
wonder Sir Ralph Gore was chosen Speaker next year. The
Hospital paid dearly for their complacent hospitality. So
King's Hospital was the Parliament House of Ireland from
23rd September, 1729, to 15th April, 1730. The session was
opened by Lord Carteret in person, who " arrayed in royal
robes entered the House of Lords with the usual ceremonies of
grandeur, and seated himself in the chair of State." His
influence in this parliament was very great, for great was the
interest he took in its proceedings. He attended again on
24th October, when Sir Ralph Gore presented himself on
knee as newly chosen Speaker in the room of the Right Hon.
William Connolly, who had just resigned from ill health.
Thrice again he came in person, in December to receive the
loyal addresses voting supplies to the Crown, and in April to
give the royal assent to the bills before prorogation. But his
keen sympathy in all that was for the material prosperity of
Ireland, and which he transfused through the Houses, was
the chief ground of his popularity. In the same year he for-
warded to Holies, Duke of Newcastle, a memorial of the
Dublin merchants complaining that under Acts of Chas. 11.
and Wm. III. importation into Ireland was penally forbidden
of any merchandise from the English plantations in America,
Africa, or Asia, and the consequent loss and inconvenience.
Carteret indorses the memorial, stating " I have personally
inquired into the particulars, and find that Ireland is under
i6S FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
necessity of sending to foreign markets and trading with tne
French and other foreigners to procure commodities which
they are prohibited from importing from British plantations."
Verily we are not ashamed of this our Parliament of the Blue
Coat. Reading the Journals one might think he had before
him proposals of our Congested Districts Board or Sir Horace
Plunkett, for they cast striking lights on social and material
problems even now in evolution. The great measure of the
session was that " for the encouragement, the better employ-
ment of the Poor, for more effectively draining and improving
Bogs and unprofitable ground, and for expediting the
carriage of goods from one part to another of the Kingdome."
This became 3 Geo. II., c. 3. By this a Commission of the
magnates of Ireland was constituted, with elastic powers,
armed with a Developement Fund raised bv taxes on
carriages and chairs, plate, cards and dice. Then there are bills
for cleansing the ports and harbours of Cork, Waterford,
Limerick, Galway, Sligo, Wexford, and New Ross ; for
establishing ballast boards in Belfast and Drogheda ; one to
promote the finding of mines and minerals within the King-
dom, and one to enable the governors of the Workhouse in
Dublin to employ the poor therein. We have the germ of
Trades Union law in a bill to prevent unlawful combinations
of workmen, artizans, and labourers, with beneficent pro-
visions for the better paym.ent of their wages. An early order
directs our Recorder, Francis Stoyte, then sitting for Hills-
borough, to attend the Lord Lieutenant with the heads of a
bin to prevent the running of goods and encouragement of
Fair Traders to be transmitted to London under Poyning's
Act. Were these " runners " the forerunner of Mr. Chamber-
lains " dumpers," and the Fair Traders a shadow of Tariff
Reform ? There are beneficent measures for Relief of Insol-
vent Debtors, for the extension and repair of churches, for
enforcing residence of the clergy, and many local ones, as for
the better lighting of Dublin and Cork, and for making the
present coach road to Naas and Dublin. And the House
could deal strongly with abuses. Aldermen Wilkinson and
Bolton, both, alas ! governors of ours, are by statute made
TEMP. GEORGE II., 1727-1744 169
incapable of being made Justices of the Peace for taking
extortionate fees in that capacity.
But our glory in this Parliament is the spirit of our own
great governor, Swift, which it breathed. He was then in
the fury of his marvellous war against the trade greed of
England, and the anti-Irish policy of Primate Boulter. We
can see his figure now animating the generosity of Carteret
and the patriotism of the Houses. Their measures are at
least an effort to reflect the Short View of the State of
Ireland which he had thundered forth to greet Carteret's
return to Ireland in 1727. This he had followed in 1729 witli
his historic letter to Archbishop King, and then with
his Modest Proposal for fattening Irish Babes, our only
available manufactm-e, for market, which is, perhaps, the
most consummate sample of hideous-grotesque power the
genius of satire has ever conceived. With much of his policy
Carteret had a sympathy intense. They were now close, social,
and literary friends. Swift dined tete-a-tete with the ^'iceroy
repealedly during this session. One clause in the great bill
for encouraging industries would alone prove the presence of
the spirit behind the scenes ; this was a project for lending
money without interest to deserving tradesmen who had no
capital, a plan long adopted by the Dean himself with self-
denying success, and which, though now forgotten, was a main
element in his unrivalled popularity with the people of
Dublin. It is not actually embodied in the Act as passed, but
may have been \\ithin the powers of the Commission in
administering their Development Fund. When the Lord
Lieutenant came in state to close the session in April in the
Blue Coat, both Houses presented him with a cordial address,
" for his constant care for the welfare and prosperity of the
Nation, and especially for obtaining the King's assent to the
Fund for improving tillage and trade." This referred to the
remission of the hereditary CrowTx duties on wool and yarn,
which, in assenting to the measure, the Viceroy announced
he had obtained from the English Government. He replied
to the address in person with characteristic grace. Shortly
after he resigned the \'iceroyalty, returning to England,
170 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
where he became the first Earl Granville and a great states-
man there. He was no partisan of Walpole, who was then
supreme, and to whom Swift was a hete noir, and whose
intimacy, there is too much reason to believe, was in part a
cause of his resignation, which was deplored by all here. He
was a universal favourite in the city. In 1726 the Corpora-
tion, in a loyal address to George XL specially thank his
Majesty " for the great regard shown to this nation in sending
Lord Carteret, whose just and prudent administration has
rendered him highly acceptable to your subjects of this
Kingdom." He was very friendly to the Blue Coat. Lady
Carteret nominated several of our boys.
Our Blue Coat Parliament has been severely criticized for
the very unconstitutional proposal made by Coghill as Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer to vote the additional duties for a
period of twenty-one years and thus so far leave the Govern-
ment independent of the House for all that time. To the
credit of the House the bill was rejected, but only by a
majority of one, the votes being 51 to 50. It is most unlikely
that Carteret had suggested such a measure ; had he been
more self-willed and ambitious his great talents would have
raised him higher than he reached. The arbitrary policy was
much more likely to have emanated from Primate Boulter,
who ruled as an Undertaking Lord Justice in the absence of
the Lord Lieutenant, and would have ruled despotically if he
dared. Our Parliament was the " Longest " on record, the
Blue Coat session being its second ; it lasted through the
whole reign of George II., and this abuse led to the
Octennial Act passed early in the following reign.
Pending the session, school went on in the Stone Galler}'"
and garrets. The Board had reserved a joint right to their
own room for their weekly meetings, and, perhaps attracted
by the society of the Senate, the attendance of governors was
above the average. But the boys seem to have been restive
in their attic, if not classical, quarters, for several were
discharged out of the house, "'never to be admitted again," as
being vagabonds and running away ! and William Rowland
for being " a stubborne and incorrigible boy was straight
TEMP. GEORGE II., 1727-1744 171
sent to sea." We may excuse Parliament for its monopoly of
the Blue Coat in view of their good work, but when the
" avenues " were removed, and the boys came down, all
things were in disastrous disarray. Every passage and lobby
had been absorbed and trampled. Even the poor butler had
been expelled to give an office to the House, and had a grant
from the Board of £2 i8s. 4d. for three quarters of a rent for
a room outside. Parliament was prorogued by several
adjournments to the autumn of 1731, for it then sat in
alternate years, and when it met Lionel, Duke of Dorset,
reigned in Carteret's stead. Our Board petitioned the Com-
mons in November, 1731, for the expenses of rebuilding our
dilapidated school, and there was a separate petition of our
officers to be compensated for disturbance and eviction, but
the result was only a scanty vote of £200 to the governors
towards rebuilding by reason of alterations made for Parlia-
ment, £30 to Rev. Mr. Gibbons, our chaplain ; /20 to Alfred
Howard, the agent ; and £20 to Thorne, the steward. This
pittance was all we ever received for rent and the dilapida-
tions, from which the old edifice never recovered. Carteret
would have secured us better than that.
It should be mentioned, however, that in this session of
1731-32 a Merchant Seamen's Act was passed, by which all
penalties were appropriated for the benefit of King's Hospital.
The return for our hospitality was ungracious as well as
ungenerous. In the Lord Lieutenant's absence, Thomas Lord
Chancellor Wyndham was head of the Government and Presi-
dent of the Priw Council, then all potent. From the Council
came this letter to our steward :
" Dublin Castle, yth October, 1732.
" Mr. Thorne,
" Their excellencies the Lords Justices have commanded me
to signify to you their pleasure that you forthwith deliver to
Mrs. Heath or her order the Chair, Cushion, and Footstool
belonging to the Government which were placed in the House
of Lords when it was held in the Blue Coat Hospital,
'' I am your humble servant,
" Thos Tickell."
172 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
This letter is a prize among our archives, a fine autograph, and
all in the strong hand of Tickell, the poet, eulogist, and elegist
of Addison, who first brought him to Ireland many years
before. He was now Secretary to the Privy Council, the
intimate of Swift and Dr. Delany of Delville, Glasnevin, so
continuing to his death in 1740. The sequel of the chair is
told in a manuscript of Thorne indorsed on Tickell's letter,
so graphic that we give it in full : —
" I received this letter Munday morning about 8 of the
clock. I told Mrs. Heath that I could do nothing, but would
waite on my Lord Mayor and give her his lordship's answer
by 4 in the afternoon. She sent to me, and I sent her word
that my Lord Mayor could give no order without a board of the
governors, but atthenext meeting he would lay the letter before
them and then return an answer. Tuesday, about two o'clock
afternoon, a person came to me from the Lord Chancellor
ordering me to attend his Lordship at 4 of the clock, at the
Bishop of Tuam's in Cavan (Kevin) Street. I first waited on
my Lord Mayor, and acquainted him that I was sent for by
the Lord Chancellor. His Lordship ordered me to acquaint
His Excellency that he could give no order of himself, but if
there were a necessity, he would call a board Wednesday
morning. I went to my Lord Chancellor. When he came
out to me, and Secretary Tickle (sic) in his company, he
demanded me why I did not obe}' the Government's orders.
I told him I was under the direction of the governors of the
Blue Coat Hospital, and could not part with anything with-
out their orders. I also told him I was just come from m}^
Lord Mayor, and would have delivered my orders. His
Excellency stopped me, and said rriy Lord Mayor was
out of the question. Demanded of me who put the
Thrown (sic) in my custody, and whether I would keep
it, and said, ' Sir, I demand of you whether you will de-
liver it or not ? ' I answered I could not without orders
from the governors. His Lordship replied with some warmth
— ' Sir, if you do not, I will have you turned out of your place
to-morrow,' to which I made a bow. His Lordship returned
to his company. I immediately went to my Lord Mayor,
who dined at the 3 tunns in Essex Street. There were present
Alderman Curtis, Alderman Porter, Alderman Hunt, 2
Shiriffs. My Lord Mayor with their approbation ordered me
to send the Chair and Stool to the Castle, which I did by John
Hodgin, Butler to the Hospital."
TEMP. GEORGE II., 1727-1744 173
It is not hard to decide as to the relative dignity of the
peremptory Lord Chancellor, who would not wait till Wed
nesday,and the poor servant, who was only doing his duty to
his masters. This throne left in the fragments of our broken
furniture would have been a splendid relic of our Parliament,
for this was the chair in which Carteret had sat in state on his
four visits to the Houses, under the canopy from which he
gave the royal assent to the aids voted to the Crown in the
old Norman French : Le roy remercie scs bons sujets, accepte
leur benevolence et ainsi le veult. When in June, 1904, Lord
Dudley inaugurated the completion of our buildings by the
cupola, after one hundred and twenty years, our chairman,
addressing His Excellency, lamented that we had not the
throne wherein he might sit as a great predecessor had done :
it was added that we should have taken care that he should
find in it no thorn to disturb him.
The Lord Mayor and our Chairman, under whom Thorne
had hastened to take shelter, was Humfrey French, w^ho had
just commenced his Mayoralty. He is known as the good
Lord Mayor (1732-33) ; his portrait is in the National Por-
trait Gallery. He was dining at the Three Tuns that
October day probably to celebrate his inauguration, and did
not care to begin with a quarrel with the Privy Council even
for a throne ; but he was boomed by Swift next year, 1733,
W'hen candidate for the city, in a memorable broadside to the
freemen recommending him as one who would vote patriotic-
ally, whilst his opponent, Alderman Macarell, who held an
appointment under Government, would not dare to oppose
anti-Irish measures. " He has shewn," says Swift, " more
virtue, more activity, more skill in one year's government of
the cit}^ than a hundred years can equal." This secured his
election. Lord Chancellor Wyndham should have been gentler
to Thorne, for he was himself one of our governors, and had
been one of thirty-seven eagles gathered together at our P>oard
of September, 1729, when Thorne was elected our Steward,
vice John Kirkwood, deceased. Lord Mayor Page in the chair,
and with him, beside Wyndham, sat Primate Boulter,
Connolly, Speaker of the House, the Bishops of Meath and
174 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Kildare, and a great tale of aldermen and sheriffs ; and he
was still a member of the Board. He afterwards acted on our
Committee in 1737 to support our petition to Parliament for
a grant to rebuild, and at his death he bequeathed £300 to
the Hospital. Perhaps he felt he had been a little too severe
in the case of the throne. He was ancestor of the Right Hon.
George Wyndham, lately our brilliant Chief Secretary for
Ireland. Secretary Tickell, too, should have been friendly ;
we had admitted a boy at his request in 1727.
In January, 1730, our Secretary, Bartholomew Wybrants,
resigned, after a faithful service of thirty-six years. He was
one of those clerks whose clerkly talent rises almost to genius,
and by whom a vast part of the world's work is done, though
they be unknown to the world. Every line of our first Minute
Book, from our beginning in 1675 to 1731, is under his hand ;
for, though only appointed in 1694, he transcribed all the
previous entries into the books, and after his resignation con-
tinued the entries for a twelvemonth. During his tenure with
us he also acted as Clerk to the Commons in the Town Council.
He merits a kind memory for his own sake, but a romantic
domestic tragedy has connected him with the literature of
Queen Anne's time, for the story is told by Sir Richard Steele
in No. 172 of the Taller, May, 1710. Wybrants belonged to a
respectable family of Dutch extraction, which, like many
others,was made free of Dublin city in Dutch William's reign.
Steele uses the tragedy as an epilogue to an essay on the sad
results of passion let loose between friends, and especially in
mariied life, strikingly observing that there is a sex in souls.
Wybrants' daughter was the wife of Mr. Eustace, a young
gentleman of a good estate near Dublin. She was of a lively
spirit, but somewhat high-tempered. The married couple
and the lady's sister supped together in the spring of 1710.
when a commonplace wrangle arose between the sisters.
Eustace, intervening, took violent sides against his wife, who,
vainly reminding him that their disputes were forgotten in
half an hour, to close the quarrel retired to her bed. The
husband followed, and, with a dagger he had brought with
him, stabbed her in her sleep. Awaking, and thinking it was
TEMP. GEORGE II., 1727-1744 175
an attack on her husband by ruffians, for theirs was a lonely
country house, she roused him to defend himself ; he was
feigning sleep, but he gave her a second wound in
the dark. Then by the moonlight she saw that
it was he. Horror disarmed her from further struggling,
and, enraged anew at being discovered, he fixed
his poniard in her bosom, and, believing he had
dispatched her, souglit to escape b}'' the window. But
when still alive she called on him not to hurt himself, as she
was still alive ; in an access of fury he jumped on the bed and
wounded her all over with as much rage as if ever}^ blow was
provoked by new aggravations. Then he fled ; she died
next day. Some weeks after, an officer of justice, attempting
to arrest him, on his resistance fired at him, as did the
criminal at the officer. Both balls took fatal effect. In Jones's
British Classics, 1823, there is a sensational engravmg bv
Corbould of this bedroom scene. Alfred Howard was chosen
our Agent in Wybrants' stead.
Our poor chaplain, Richard Gibbons, did not long survive
his extrusion from his quarters by Parliament, or even long
enough to receive the pittance of £30 awarded him, for
he died in December, 1731. Forty-nine governors, eagles
gathered together fro more, met to elect his successor, the
Primate, Lord Chancellor, Archbishop Hoadley, the Lord
Chief Justice, Bishops of Meath and Kildare, Sir Ralph Gore,
and Swift attending. They had before them the valuable
report of a Committee as to the duties of the chaplain and
schoolmaster, which recites the original order made when Mr.
Colquit was appointed second chaplain in 1680, as set forth,
ante, p. 88, also that of 7 May, 1708 (p. 131, ante), requiring
the chaplain to preach and read prayers every Sunday, and
to teach and expound the Church catechism every Sunday
in the Chapel ; the Committee report that the order as to
preaching was once respited for six months on account of a
law suit, when Rev. Mr. Carr was chaplain, but was never
reversed, and they find that several of the above duties of
the chaplain and schoolmaster have been for some years past
wholly omitted, and are of opinion they ought to be revived.
176 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
This report is very noteworthy, not only as showing the
strictly denominational nature of the Hospital, which
obtained for it an exemption from the Educational Endow-
ments Act of 1885, but because we trace in it the strong hand
of the great Dean of St. Patrick's. The original, still in our
archives, is signed by seven governors, of which " Jonath.
Swift " stands second, immediately after Humfrey French,
Lord Mayor. An order had been made a few months before
that Testaments and Prayer Books should be supplied to
every boy, and that in future no boy should be admitted
without a Bible and Prayer Book provided by their friends
at their first entrance.
The Grattans and the Blue Coat.
But we scarcely dare attribute this conflux of 49
governors solely to spiritual zeal. There was the
great question of the appointment of chaplain and
headmaster, for which there were several candidates.
The Reverend Ralph Grattan was chosen. Small
chance for any other, for ?ie was a nephew and namesake
of the speaker, Ralph Gore, one of the 49, as also
nephew of another of them. Alderman Sir Richard Grattan,
who, four years after, was our Chairman and Lord Mayor,
whilst he and his uncle. Sir Richard, belonged to the clan
Grattan, dear to Swift, who took a chief part, as we have seen,
at the meeting that day. This clan was of his inner circle,
he dubbed them " the Grattans, a set of men as generally
acquainted and as much beloved, as any one family in the
nation ; nay, to such a degree, that some of the most con-
siderable men in the church desired and thought it a favour
to be adopted by them, and admitted Grattans." " Pray,
my Lord," Swift asked Lord Carteret, " have you the honour
to be acquainted with the Grattans ?" Carteret replying
that he had not that honour, "' tlien, pray, my Lord, take
care to obtain it, it is of great consequence, the Grattans can
raise ten thousand men." The Grattans, properly so called,
were then the seven sons of the Reverend Doctor Patrick
Grattan, Senior Fellow of Trinity College, of whom Dr.
TEMP. GEORGE II., 1727-1744 177
Delany (another Swiftian) says he had often heard the
Bishop of Clogher (St. George Ashe, another Swiftian),
declare that he kept hospitahty beyond both the lords who
hved on either side of him, though both were considered
hospitable. The seven sons were : — i, Henry ; 2, Rev.
Wilham ; 3, James, M.D. ; 4, Rev. Robert ; 5, Rev. John ;
6, Sir Richard ; 7, Charles. Of these, Henry was father of
James Grattan, Recorder of Dublin, and one of our governors,
1756-66 ; he was father of the great Henry, the patriot, who
was born in the year after Swift's death. The Rev. William
was a Fellow of Trinity, he married a sister of Sir Ralph Gore,
and was father of our chaplain, Ralph, who held that office
for forty-one years. Dr. James, the third brother, \vas an
eminent physician, and President of the Royal College of
Physicians, in which office we have seen him in 1706, pro-
mising, on behalf of the College, always to supply a Physician
to our Hospital, on the wise condition that we should set
apart rooms for an infirmary. The Rev. Robert was pre-
bendary of Howth, in the Chapter of St. Patrick's, and as
such, a colleague of Swift, and rector of St. Audoen's. The
Rev. John was rector of Raheny, and became prebendary
of Clonmethan, in the Chapter of St. Patrick's in 1720,
doubtless, due to his friend, the great Dean. Sir Richard,
our chairman in 1735-6, presented our petition to Parliament
in 1735 ; he died during his mayoralty. The youngest brother,
Charles, obtained a Fellowship in the Dublin University
and applied for a royal dispensation from taking Holy Orders,
which, failing to obtain within the prescribed period, his
fellowship lapsed under the College statutes, and he came
over to London to obtain from Queen Anne such an exten-
sion of time as would enable him to be ordained. Swift,
then in his zenith of favour with ministers, took up the case.
Writing to Stella, in March, 1714, he tells her : — " I spoke
to all the ministers yesterday about it, but they say the
Queen is angry, and thought it a trick to deceive her, and
she is positive, and so the man must be ruined, for I cannot
help him'-." We know that Anne, like many weak people,
'-Journal to S/dla, iQtli March, 1712-13.
N
178 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
was adamantine in some things, and, especially on things
that related to the church. So Charles Grattan, failing his
Fellowship, was forced to be content with the mastership
of the Royal School of Enniskillen. This case seems first
to have connected Swift with the Grattans, for he tells Stella
that he had never seen Charles before. But the connection
was lifelong. Dr. James, Robert, and John are all legatees
in Swift's will, and Robert and John are executors. To
Robert he leaves his gold corkscrew, his best beaver hat, and
his strong box ; the latter to go to Dr. James for life, " as
having more use for it," for the Doctor was a landed pro-
prietor. To John he gives " my silver box, in which the
freedom of the City of Cork was presented to me, in which I
desire said John to keep the tobacco he usually cheweth,
called pigtail." Sir Richard left £100 to the Blue Coat, on
condition that one of his executors should be chosen a
governor, and, accordingly, the Rev. John was elected in
1742, thus giving us again two of " the Grattans " on our
Board. The clan were chief members of the symposial set,
which included their cousins, Dan and John Jackson, Dr.
Sheridan, Dr. Delany, and the Dean himself. Their meets
were often at Belcamp, St. Doulough's, where Dr. James
lived, and where, perhaps, that gold corkscrew and the pig-
tail were not unknown. In the next generation the connec-
tion of the Grattans with King's Hospital was still main-
tained, when their nephew, James, became our Recorder,
and a governor, but we must regret that his son, the great
Henry Grattan, never joined the Board. His burning
politics left him no sympathy for anything so narrow as a
City School.
Belcamp belonged successively to two of our Grattan
governors, for Dr. James left it to his brother, John, and he,
in turn, devised it to his nephew, James, the Recorder. One
of the revellers, rhyming upon it, says, that " when Swift
and Dr. Delany were absent, Christmas appears at Belcamp
like Lent."
Thorne was a faithful steward. In 1731 there were 160
boys in the School. Their uniforms were made by a con-
TEMP. GEORGE II., 1727-1744 179
tractor, one King, the governors supplying the cloth. The,
coats were of blue woollen frieze, and the cassocks they then
wore of yellow, the Irish fabric Swift was so earnest to have
introduced into England ; the linings were of Irish linen.
Thome, observing the very large measure charged in King's
accounts, suspected something was wrong, and, of his own
motion, employed an old Blue Coat boy, Christopher Evans,
who had gone into the trade, to measure three of the suits,
which were found to contain seven and a half yards of blue, six
yards of yellow cloth, and three of linen, as compared with
nine yards of blue, seven and a half yards of yellow, and the
linen in proportion, as charged in King's accounts. And Thorne
thus calculated that in each of a series of years, the con-
tractor had cheated the governors by eighty yards of blue,
and eighty of yellow cloth, and some twenty-four of linen.
Thome's calculation was examined by the governors and
found to be correct. King was found guilty of the fraud, with
the governors further verdict that he intended to continue it.
So King was ignominiously dethroned, and Christopher
Evans, as the industrious apprentice, was chosen in his
stead. But poor Thorne, too, did not long survive his
extrusion by the Parliament of the Blue Coat. He died in
1738. He was a valuable officer, holding with his stewardship,
the coUectorship of the city tolls, and in the letter of Sir
Williams FowTies to Swift, in 1732, containing an elaborate
scheme for the founding of a Lunatic Asylum, which the
Dean afterwards so warmly adopted, Thorne is suggested as
the proper treasurer.
The state of our structure was now a burning question.
In 1733 the Board started a rebuilding fund, to which Lord
Mayor Nathaniel Kane gave £100, and they addressed their
second petition to the House of Commons in the next session
of 1735, setting forth our needs and showing that as their
income was only sufficient for the maintenance of the school,
if this were applied to rebuilding, this useful charity must
cease for many years. They annex a plan, which, if executed
in the plainest and least expensive manner, was computed
to cost £6,000. The Commons appointed a Committee, whose
i8o FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
report was presented by Stannard, the Recorder, then
Member for Middleton, to the effect that the petitioners had
proved their case, and the Hon. Arthur Hill, Member for Co.
Down, and David Chuigneau, Member for Gowran, and both
governors were directed to bring in a bill. This went into
Committee ; it provided an aid to the Hospital by a tax on
oranges and lemons, but it added a clause for appointing
new governors under the Act. To this the governors
indignantly objected as an undue alteration of their old
constitution, whereas " no mismanagement had been alleged
against the present governors," and they resolved
that the bill or petition be no further pursued. This was
unfortunate, as the sequel proved, for their parliamentary
hopes were never again so near bearing even such fruit as
these oranges and lemons would have yielded. So, failing
Parliament, the governors sought for voluntary contributions,
but it would need years to reach £6,000 by these ; the ruin
was now waxing perilous, and a renewed petition to the next
session of 1737 was resolved on. The drafting Committee
met at the Parliament House itself to prepare it, headed by
Sir James Somerville, our chairman. It described the build-
ing as in so ruinous a condition as to absolutely need restora-
tion, and asked £6,000 as before, which, if supplied out of
the Hospital funds, would disable the charit}' for years. The
petition, presented by Somerville and his colleague. Alderman
Pearson, the members for the city, was referred to a Com-
mittee of the House, who were given special powers af
examining witnesses and calling for records. ]Meanwhile in
December the peril became desperate, and a Minute records
" that the]\Iiddle Isle (aisle) of the Hospital is in so dangerous
a condition, that to preserve the liv^es of 138 boys and 8
nurses, which will, in all probability, be destroyed with its
fall, which they apprehend ^^dll be very soon by the assistance
of the high winds this winter, it is ordered that said boys
and nurses be immediately removed to less dangerous parts
of the Hospital, and in case there be not sufficient room to
contain them, the governors' room be fitted up to put the
rest in."
TEMP. GEORCxE II., 1727-1744 181
Thereupc»n, perhaps, the strongest committee we ever
have had was selected to support the petition before Parha-
ment. The Primate Boulter, Archbishop Hoadley of Dublin,
L. C. Justice Rogerson, Bishop Price of Meath, and Dr. Cobb
of Kildare, and eleven members of the Commons, the
Speaker, Henry Boyle (Cork), Somerville (Lord Mayor), and
Aid. Eason (Dublin City), Stannard, Recorder (Middleton),
Hon. xA.rthur Hill (Down), Richard Wesley (Trim), Luke
Gardiner (Thomastown), Aid. Chuigneau (Gowran), Aid.
Dawson (Portarlington), Aid. Falkiner (Baltinglass), M.
Coghill (Dublin University), and Robt. Ross (Newry). Armed
with the terrors of the " Middle Isle," it might be thought sucli
voices as these must prevail for at least /6,ooo, but the
petition seems never to have emerged from the Select
Committee. This may have been because the Commons were
offended at the rejection by our governors of their lemon bill
of the previous session, or more probably because they were
then engaged in finding money to complete their own Parlia-
ment House, which, for several years, remained incomplete
after the Houses had actually sat there. And yet our
supporters were amongst the strongest men in the Commons.
Henry Boyle, who had succeeded Sir R. Gore as Speaker,
ruled the country for many years, as one of the Undertaking
Lords Justices, now the friend, now the enemy, of the
handsome Primate Stone, and was ultimately raised to the
Earldom of Shannon. Coghill was Chancellor of the
Exchequer, two were afterwards, peers, Arthur Hill
as Viscount Dungannon, Richard Wesley, first Viscount
Mornington, and Luke Gardiner's son was afterwards Lord
Mountjoy. Sir James Somerville, one of the most respected
citizens, came to us as Master of St. iVnne's
Guild ; he was ancestor of the Lords Athlumney.
They might have secured us £6,000. This failure deterred
the Board from appealing to Parliament for a generation
to come. The condition of the buildings during this decade
had a calamitous effect on the discipline of the School, as the
fierce quaint entries too often show. In 1732, Adam Darling
is discharged as a runaway vagabond, and John Mead is
i82 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
ordered " to be publicly whipped by all the boys of this house
out of the gate thereof, and never more admitted therein."
He was an E. Smith boy, and Coghill the treasurer, is ordered
to have notice. In 1735, James Maddox is sent to the work-
house " for stealing wine out of the Rev. Ralph Grattan's
chambers, and enticing John Davis and Wm. Brown to do
the same, for which said Davis and Brown are ordered to be
severely lashed in the hall in the presence of all the boys."
This wine story seems to imply that our chaplain shared in
the convivial nature of his clan, as commemorated in Dr.
Sheridan's couplet : —
" The time, O ye Grattans, was happily spent
When Bacchus went with me wherever I went."
Yet the Total Abstinence Societies could scarce have
inflicted more terrible penalties for this unlicensed sharing
with a Grattan cellar. In October, 1737, we read, " Wm
Jones, Sr., being a vicious, incorrigible boy, he be sent to the
Plantations the first opportunity." In February, 1738,
" Whereas, several vicious, incorrigible boys have of late
been detected picking locks, thieving, getting drunk, mitch-
mg and running away : Geo. Runy and Peter Lynch now
run away, and guilty of the above facts, to be expelled, and
never more admitted. Arthur Lockhart and Wm. Harrison
to be immediately lashed out of the house by the boys, and,
if their parents agree, to be sent to the Plantations." Six
less guilty are "to be publickly lashed in such manner as
the steward pleases, and the governors, will, according to
their behaviour, consider how to dispose of them." It is to
be pleaded for these delinquents that this was the time when
" The Middle Isle " was in danger of falling on them, and
when they would have been safer in the Stone Gallery, whither
they were sent by the Blue Coat Parliament, and the poor
runaways might also have pleaded an incident worthy of a
page of Dickens in Dotheboys Hall. In 1735 the governors
held an inquiry over Hugh Smith, the butler, on a complaint
by the boys, that he habitually cut off from the share of bread
allotted to each, a small piece which he put into his own
TEMP. GEORGE II., 1727-1744 183
pocket. His defence before the Board is delightful and
ingenious, his assize of bread was that he might have a
stock with which to reward the boys, whom he, the butler,
considered the most deserving. The Board gravely ordered
" that it was none of his business to distinguish the merits
of any boy by depriving others of the due the governors were
pleased to allow them, and, being reprimanded, he remains
in the service on his good behaviour for the future."
The voluntary building fund was continued, and much
money was collected, but it never was enough to restore on
the thorough scale, and so it was virtually wasted in patch-
work and temporary repairs, for the defects were radical
and ever decadent, till of necessity they must be replaced
by the new Hospital. Thus, £500 left us by John Holroyd,
Master of Trinity Guild, and £400 left by the Bishop
of Clogher, in 1742 (both were governors) were spent on
buildings doomed soon to come down. Once success
was in sight. In July, 1742, the Right Hon. Luke
Gardiner, who had himself subscribed £50, brought a
message from the Primate Boulter, directing the governors
when they had fixed on a complete plan, to proceed and build.
We know what this meant, for, if Boulter was an autocrat,
he was munificent, and left a fortune to maintain
poor parishes, but this message was one of the
last acts of his life, for he died in the following September,
succeeded in the Primacy or Government of Ireland by the
equally masterful Archbishop, George Stone.
Our Chairman and Lord Mayor in 1739, was Daniel
Falkiner, of Abbotstown, Co. Dublin. He was a governor
for thirty-three years, 1726-1759. A partner in Burton and
Falkiner 's banks, he was for many years a chief member of
the Ballast Office, engaged through the century in forming
the modern port of Dublin. As member for Baltinglass, he
had a principal share in supporting our petition to the
Commons in 1735 and 1737. His great grandson, Frederick
Falkiner, of Abbotstown, Colonel of the looth regiment,
created a baronet in 1812, as member for Co. Dublin, voted
against the Union. In this year, 1739, Lord Chancellor
184 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Jocelyn became a governor ; he was afterwards Lord New-
port, and father of the first Lord Roden, and at the same
period we have boys nominated by James, twentieth Earl
of Kildare.
During the thirties tliere was considerable trouble in
collecting the £30 Consecration Fees from several of the
Bishops. This was, perhaps, because the chief defaulter was
Dr. Hoadley, who is returned in arrear in all the ten years
from 1730, he having succeeded William King in the See of
Dublin in 1729, and we have no record that he ever paid. In
this context it is pleasant to see on our printed boards of
benefactors, the name of George Berkeley, the great Bishop
of Cloyne. That he would hold back would be inconceivable,
for his heart was as large as his intellect. " He is an absolute
philosopher with regard to titles, wealth and power," writes
Swift to Lord Carteret as early as 1724, and our annals are
enriched even by this slight connection of our School with
one of the very noblest and greatest of his day.
In the early thirties Swift continued to attend our Board,
but only occasionally, for his health was on an increasing
decline. Our archives contain two original letters of his,
which, having never been hitherto published, we feel justified
now in printing in extenso ; they exemplify his passion for
patronage, which was one of the most amiable traits of his
complex character. The first is addressed to Nathaniel
Kane, then Lord Mayor and Chairman of our Board. It runs,
" Sir, I have so ill a state of health that I cannot safely
attend at the Blue Coat Board this evening. I must, there-
fore, intreat you to recommend Isaac Bullock, a hopeful
honest boy, to be admitted into the Hospital at my request
to my Lord Mayor and the Board, wherein you will much
oblige, your most obedient servant, Jonath. Swift, Deanery
House, February 7th, 1734. The boy was recomrriended to
me by the Lady Elizabeth Brownlow from her own know-
ledge." This lady was the wife of William Brownlow, M.P.
for County Armagh, and thus the ancestress of the Lords
Lurgan. She had been Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, sister of
Swift's friend. Lord Abercorn. W^e find her ''hopeful honest
TEMP. GEORGE II., 1727-1744 185
boy," Isaac Bullock, was admitted at the meeting of
governors on the 4th July following, the Dean being
personally present. The second letter is addressed
to Sir James Somerville, then our Lord Mayor
and Chairman, ancestor of the Lords Athlumney,
and is as follows : — " My Lord, my ill health will
not permit me to attend your Lordship and the Board at
the Blue Coat Hospital to-morrow, I, therefore, desire your
Lordship to recommend to the Board Edward Riley. His
father was of this city, and dyed in the service of the present
Earl of Orrery, after having lived fifteen years with the
late and present Earl. The Earl of Orrery has a great deal
•of merit with this kingdom, having lived some years in it,
although he be a Peer of England, and born there. I have
not for several years recommended one boy to this Hospital,
nor would have done this if I could have refused any command
to so excellent a person as his Lordship. I am, with great
respect, my Lord, your Lordship's most obedient and most
humble servant, Jonath. Swift. Deanery House, July 7th,
^lyj-'''' ^^ fii^d Edward Riley admitted in the following
October, but the Dean was still unable to attend. His last
recorded presence as a governor was on February 4th in
this year, 1737. Much of his power was still displayed at
intervals, but that his memory was then partially at fault,
is shown in this very letter, when he says he had not recom-
mended a boy for several years, for an entry in our books
•of the previous December, shows the admission of James
Fulton, at the request of the Dean of St. Patrick's. Lord
Orrery had been flattering him for several years when the
glamour of his name might reflect some light on the Earl's
own literary pretensions, but who, when the lion was dead,
repaid the friendship he had won by his banal " Remarks,"
whose offensive sneers the living lion would have silenced
with a growl. Orrery had learned from Pope how to " damn
with faint praise."
But even in these years the Dean did not confine him-
self as a governor to the patronage of boys. In 1734 he is
one of the strong committee to examine the proposals of Mr.
i86 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
George Vaughan to take twenty of our boys as apprentices
to the linen trade. It is easy to conceive the interest Swift
would take in a subject so affecting our home manufactures.
In 1736 he is one of the standing committee " to inspect and
direct the dyet of the children of this house." Finally, in
1737, he was placed on the committee to prepare the petition
to Parliament for the rebuilding of the Hospital, though it
is probable he never was able to attend it.
In 1734, Mr. Vaughan 's proposal for twenty-four linen
apprentices was referred to a Committee of Governors,
including, with Swift and many of our Aldermen, the Primate,
Dr. Boulter, Archbishop Hoadley, the new Bishop of Meath,
Dr. Arthur Price, whom we had just elected a governor^
Chief Justice Rogerson, Dr. Marmaduke Coghill, and Arthur
Hill, on whose report seven boys were sent to Buncrana?
in the north, to Mr. Vaughan. This experiment, which
covered ten years was not a success, the master and the
apprentices continually were quarrelling. The truth was
that, the indentures being for seven years, the boys could
earn good wages elsewhere long before their apprenticeship
expired, and they often settled the question by running away.
They complained, too, of their treatment, and that they were
not paid the wages stipulated in their indentures. Several
teams of our boys were sent up, but the experience as to all
was similar. At last, Mr. Vaughan, in 1744, called on our
governors to settle the disputes, sending forward this list : —
Marm. Matthews
Thos. Walsh
Henry Hoffman t. 1 r ^u •
r- i,T ] K K.an away before their
Theo! WcSr ' >'^^'' ^^P"'^^-
Pat Tyrrell
Wni. Atkinson
Richard Lenhouse [ 6th April, 1 739, desired to be
Hen. Allen ( discharged for new doaths.
Jas. Halpin 1 Discharged by consent of all
Arthur Maginiz ) parties.
..,",? ^, I Desired to be discharged for
Arthur Motley f r \
rp, , .• -' \ ^3 each.
1 hos. JJixon J ^
Henry Jackson Still with Mr. Vaughan.
TEMP. GEORGE II., 1727-1744 187
The dispute ended by the cancelhng of all the indentures,
J\Ir. Vaughan paying £19 to the boys who had not run away,
and retaining his only faithful Henry Jackson in the capacity
of clerk.
The failure of our treaty with Vaughan was deplorable,
not only because of the opening it offered our boys in the
great linen trade of the north, which was even then of imperial
magnitude, but, in it Vaughan made a fortune, which, in
1753, he bequeathed in tiust to seven of the then Bishops
of the northern province, the Chief Judges, and other
magnates, £2,000 a year to be applied to found a great
Industrial School of 300 boys and 200 girls, to be called
" Vaughan's Charity " for instruction in the several branches
of the linen manufacture and other cognate industries.
This was incorporated by statute in 1775, and is now repre-
sented by the Tubrid School in County Fermanagh, still
maintained out of Vaughan's estates. It is more than
probable, had our alliance continued, we, too, should have
had some share in " Vaughan's Charity."
i8S FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
CHAPTER IX.
TEMP. GEORGE II., 1743- 1760.
Charles Lucas and the Blue Coat.
An entry in our Minute Book, 13th August, 1742, tells " that
Mr. Charles Lucas, one of the Members of the Commons of the
city for the Corporation of Barber Surgeons, appeared this day
at the Board, and informed the governors that in perusing
the charter of this Hospital he found it was granted by King
Charles II. to the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, Commons, and
Citizens of Dublin, and as one of these he apprehended he
was a governor of the Hospital, and desired to know why he
was excluded. He was answered that this Board always
received addresses in writing, which, when presented, they
would answer properly, meantime he was ordered to with-
draw." This was the foreblast of a storm which shook civic
Dublin for eighteen years, and seriously affected our school,
as its government depended on the constitution of the Muni-
cipal body ; and this movement was itself a vibration of the
great Liberal uprising that stirred these kingdoms in the
middle of the eighteenth century — Lucas was its stormy
petrel here. He was an Ishmaelite, with a decided dash of
Esau's generosity, even when his hand was against everyone.
Called by Lord Townsend afterwards the Wilkes of Ireland,
he was undoubtedly a precursor of Henry Grattan and the so-
called Free Parliament of 1782. A skilled apothecary, he
began his agitations in 1741 by a pamphlet, " Pharmaco-
mastic," in which he lashed the heads of his craft, to their
great wrath, but thus secured the representation of his guild
in the city Commons. There, in alliance with James Digges
TEMP. GEORGE II., 1743-1760 189
La Touche, of the great banker family, he organized an
opposition Committee of the Commons, in April, 1742,
against the oligarchy of the Lord Mayor and the Board of
Aldermen, and the Commons assembly indorsed his proposed
" Regulations for the better management of the business
of this cit\^" These first claimed only a larger control
o\'er the city finances for the general committees on which
some members of the Commons sat ; but in the August
Assembly the assault was enlarged and a committee
appointed to inspect the charters, the Acts of Assembly,
and such papers as relate to the government of the
cit\'^ and of the Blue Coat Hospital ; and it was following up
this that Lucas came in person to our Board. The real attack
was upon the city magnates. To understand this we must bear
in mind the constitution of the city as then existing under
the Essex rules of 1672. The Lord Mayor, the Aldermen, and
the Common Council were the corporate body. The Lord
Mayor and twenty-four Aldermen sat apart as the upper
house. The Commons were the two sheriffs, the sheriffs'
peers, that is, those who had served or been nominated as
sheriffs, of whom there were always an average of ten to
twenty, and ninety-six members elected by the twenty-five
city guilds, who themselves were elected by the freem.en.
The constitution was fancifully compared to that of King,
Lords, and Commons. The upper house exclusively
appointed the Lord Mayor, the Sheriffs, and Treasurer ; the
Recorder, tlie city Chaplain, and the Town Clerk, and all
other officers were chosen by the Common Council in the
quarterly assemblies. The Rules did not prescribe from
what area of the citizens the upper house should elect either
Lord Mayor or Aldermen, but by long usage they always
chose the former from amongst the Aldermen, and the Alder-
men by co-opting a sheriff's peer, who himself had been
originally chosen by themselves ; and thus it was said : " Once
a sheriff, sure to be an alderman ; once an alderman, sure to
be Lord Mayor." The Aldermen were ex officio the justices of
the peace of the city. As the Lord Mayor was chief man in the
citv ; was clothed in scarlet with the collar of SS. ; controlled
igo FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
the city militia ; was called My Lord, and his wife My Lad}^ ;
and lived in the Mansion House, the prerogatives of the
upper house became the object of popular attack, of which
Lucas now made himself the voice, with the claim that all
the city officers should be chosen by the whole body of the
citizens, as represented by the whole Corporation in the city
assemblies.
But the Blue Coat was selected for frontal attack. As our
charter was then only seventy years old, its records were
modern, and it was more difficult for the upper house to plead
for their privileges a prescriptive usage which might presume
a legal origin, than where the records were ancient and
obscure. Throughout this year and 1743 the conflict was waged
with signal ability on both sides. At the October Assembly,
T742, the Commons sent to the Lord Mayor the report of
their committee setting forth their whole case. This was
answered by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in January, 1743,
and the Commons rejoined in the following July, neither side
conceding anything. These protocols occupy sixty pages of
the ninth volume of Gilbert's City Records, and also are found
in the Haliday Pamphlets, 1749. They are replete with
learning and research. The case of the Commons, condensed,
was that the great City Charter of Henry HI. confirms to
" the citizens of Dublin and their heirs that they may for
ever elect a Mayor annually out of their own body, a discreet
and proper person for the government of our City of Dublin,
when elected to be presented to us or our Lords Justices in
Ireland ;" that the assembly rolls in Queen Elizabeth's reign
dealing with the city offices are expressly made " by the
authority of the assembly, according to the antient and
laudable orders of this cit}^" Then that the Charter of
Charles I. in its preamble runs : — " Whereas we are informed
that the Mayor, bailiffs, commons, and citizens from time to
time, and time immemorial, by long and ancient usage, have
chosen within said city of the worthiest and discreetest men
twenty-four citizens to be aldermen of the city." And
setting forth a voluminous list of precedents showing the
election and removals of specific officers to be in the name of
TEMP. GEORGE II., 1743-1760 191
the assembly, they rely on the rolls in which all Mayors,
aldermen, and sheriffs are entered as chosen by the assembly
at large. The answer relies on the uninterrupted usage of
modern years ; it sets aside the apparent evidence of the
assembly rolls by showing these prove too much, as the
entries run in the same form during all the years in which
the Commons indubitably took no part in the elections, the
names being merely sent forward from the upper house and
always adopted by the assembly as mere matter of form,
The strongest fact is the negative one that the records show
no single instance of a joint appointment, nor could the
Commons suggest the mode in which it was conducted ;
above all, in the face of the fact that the upper house had sat
apart within all legal memory. They meet the language of
the charters by showing the elections could never have been
by the citizens at large, and that the only proveable
immemorial usage is that now existing, which must
be assumed as of legal origin. They rely on the Essex
Rules, 1672, acquiesced in ever since as concluding
the question of electing Lord Mayors, and though
this did not deal with the election of aldermen, which
was obscure up to 171 1, the usage ever since always
acquiesced in was sufficient evidence of the usage before;
they justified the existing system as always securing for the
government of the city the most independent and wealthy
men, who could afford their time to public service ; they had
only a pittance of £^ a year to each alderman, and the Lord
Mayor only a few hundreds, far below the expenses of his
office, which engrossed all his time ; whilst on the other
hand, the citizens were saved the turmoil and expense of
continuous popular elections.
The truth, perhaps, is that our Corporation, like most
other bodies long exercising power, had evolved some of their
functions rather than usurped them, the general body of
citizens being quite ready to leave public duties to the few
who undertake them, till all practical authority would
insensibly become centred in these.
The Lucas Committee then limited their attack to what
192 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
they regarded as the two weakest points of the defence, the
constitution of the Blue Coat and co-option of aldermen by
themselves. As to the former, their case was that whilst the
Charter was to the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, and Commons gene-
rally, the Act of Assembly, 1675, did indeed give power to the
upper house to manage the affairs of the Hospital and carry
on the work, calling to their assistance such other sub-gover-
nors nominated in the assembly of 1673 as they thought
proper, but that this gave no power to elect as sub-governors
persons who were not members of the Corporation, at their
own discretion and irrespective of the Commons. To this the
aldermen replied that the Blue Coat was a distinct Corpora-
tion, of which (the Lord Mayor and aldermen only were
members, together with the Recorder, the Sheriffs, and
Sheriffs' Peers, and a great number of gentlemen of most
eminent station and worth. Whilst the contest raged in
August, 1743, the Commons sent to the upper house a pro-
posal for a conference between tlie Houses, the Recorder to
preside as Moderator. The Lord Mayor at once replied that
at the next quarter Assembly the proposals would be con-
sidered, but the Assembly still in session forthwith attended
at the upper house, and, being admitted, demanded a con-
ference without further delay. Eaton Stannard, the Recorder
who was popular with both sides, counselled peace
and unanimity and dispatch of public business, but the
Commons insisted on instant discussion, one, presumably
Lucas, claiming the right of all members to offer tlieir senti-
ments ; whereupon Lord Mayor Aldrich, declaring that this
was no conference, ordered the Commons to withdraw.
" Gentlemen, then I desire that you will go out of the room."
The Commons witlidrew in a rage ; and in September a
message from the Lord Mayor categorically denied all the
rights they claimed.
Then it was agreed by both sides to leave all matters in
dispute to Stannard, the Recorder, who, in October, gave in
writing a very learned and judicial opinion, holding as to the
Blue Coat that the Acts of Assembly of 1675 constituted a
lawful B3'e-law vesting the government of the Hospital in the
TEMP. GEORGE IL, 1743-1760 193
persons mentioned therein, and that the general words of the
Charter were thereby restrained ; and as to the election of
aldermen, whilst giving due weight to the antient city
charters and the entries on the rolls, yet the existing usage,
which might presumably have been by Bye-law, or still
more by antient prescription, was too strong to be overturned
now, and that the election of aldermen is in the Lord Mayor
and the Board of Aldermen.
But the Lucas opposition still refused to yield. They took
the opinion of the most eminent counsel of the day. The
Attorney-General, Sir George Caulfield, was in effect against
them. As to the Blue Coat, his opinion coincided with
Stannard's ; as to the aldermen, he advised that the usage at
least threw the burden of proof on the Commons, who had no
evidence to offer of joint election of the Houses. The Prime
Sergeant, x\nthony ^Malone, now leading the Bar, and rising
to the highest eminence as a statesman, would offer no opinion
as to the Blue Coat in the absence of full information.
As to the aldermen's prerogative, he thought the Commons
must have had some original share in their elections, but as
they had so long neglected to assert their rights, he deprecated
litigation as possibly leading to a withdrawal by the
Crown of the City Charters ; if, however, they were bent on
judicial decision, their course was by an information in the
King's Bench on a Quo Warranto against any alderman
chosen by co-option only. Mr. Sergeant Marshall also de-
clined to give any opinion as to the Blue Coat on the facts
before him ; as to the aldermen, he thought the long existing
usage would be sufficient to presume a Bye-law, though
whether such would be lawful needed further consideration.
Mr. Vandeleur and Mr. Bradstreet, afterwards our Recorder,
gave opinions favourable to the Commons. Reading these
opinions, we recall Oliver Goldsmith's Chinese philosopher.who,
visiting Westminster Hall with a litigant friend then expecting
judgment in a suit which had lingered for years, asked
" Why do you hope now, after such long delays ? " " My
lawyer tells me I have Salkeld and Ventris strong in my
favour, and that there are no less than fifteen cases in point."
o
194 FOUNDATION OF THE KINGS HOSPITAL
" O," said the Chinese, " are these two of your judges ? "
" Pardon me, these are two lawyers who gave these opinions
some hundred years ago ; those which make for me are for my
lawyer to cite, those which look another way are to be cited
by the lawyer for my antagonist. I have Salkeld and Vcntris
for me ; he has Coke and Hales for him ; and he that has most
opinions is most likely to carry his cause."
In 1744 La Touche and Lucas filed a Quo JWvrnjito
information in the King's Bench against George Ribton, a
co-opted alderman, challenging the right of the aldermen to
elect irrespective of the Commons. On full argument
the King's Bench dismissed the information, " there not
having 'appeared any grounds for the same," and in
1746 the Corporation voted ^200 to cover the charges of the
defence.
But with the insuppressibility of a true agitator Lucas
warred on. Following up his Divilina Libera with his Coni-
flaints of Dithlin, he for five years fulminated pamphlets,
broadsides, letters to the citizens, to the Lord Mayor, to the
Government, which made him the hero of the populace ; but
in 1748 he became candidate for the city in Parliament,
opposing La Touche, his old colleague in agitation,
wdiich caused an angry split, and he was thrown
out at this election. He was now flying at higher
game than Lord Mayors, launching violent assaults
on the Irish Government and the constitution oi
Parliament, for which he now first raised the claim of
national independence. Some of the bitterest of his broad-
sheets ]ie addressed to Lord Harrington, who came here as
Lord Lieutenant in 1747, and who at first treated him civilly ;
but calling personally to enforce his " great Charter of
Dublin," Lord Harrington became angry, turned him out of
the Castle, and sent forward his vehement addresses to
Parliament. In October, 1749, he was summoned before the
House of Commons, who thereupon declared him an enemy
of his country, and ordered him to Newgate. Then he fled as
an outlaw, and the Corporation, taking their cue from the
Commons, summoned him in his absence to answer for his
TEMP. GEORGE IT., 1743-1760 195
addresses to the citizens of Dublin and specially his
" Dedication to the King as scandalously reflecting on the
Viceroy, tending to justify the several horrid and bloody
rebellions which have been raised within this kingdom, and to
traduce and vilify the magistracy of this honourable city ;"
and in January, 1750, failing to appear, he was adjudged
disfranchised from all liberties of the city, and to be hence-
forth reputed as a Foreigner.
When candidate for the city he had poured forth twenty-
four broadsides, violent, vehement , striking ubiquitously, styled
"Addresses to the Citizens," ^ and numbered like the Drapici-s
Letters, but it is curious that his tinal onslaught before his
outlawry was upon the Blue Coat, in form " a narrative of
the Hospital in Oxmantown Green." Reciting the acts of
the founders, whose piety he warmly praises, he prints in
many pages, all the original contributions, and calls Lord
Ossory's letter of 1678 which led to these " the laying of the
first stone of the good and great design." He then indicts
the governors, first for laying aside the primary intention of
an Hospital for the Dublin poor as well as a School. He then
bitterly renews the charge of illegally excluding the Commons
from the Government, the co-option of governors not
members of the corporation is denounced as open to criminal
prosecution under a statute of Henry VH. which forbade
under penalties the intrusion of strangers in city affairs.
But the gravamen of his charge is that the nominations of
the boys are not given exclusively to the poor lads of the
city, but at the caprice of the governors to the sons of their
followers or to strangers. This was, of course, an appeal to
the electors, but not content with generic indictment, he
founds a charge of specific corruption against two governors,
Alderman Nathaniel Kane and Sir Samuel Cooke, the one
for taking leases of the Hospital estate, the other for farming
the City Toll Corne granted to the Hospital. He further, by
innuendo, suggests that Kane had bought, in trust, the
Island Bridge Mills for the city water supply, at a gross
overvalue from Mr. Darby, the owner, so as to secure a large
' Halliday's Pamphlets, 1749.
196 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
debt which Darby owed him. And he calls on the citizens
to discharge " these perfidious trustees, these usurping
governors," by electing him as the only means, because,
having found agitation in the Assembly and appeals to the
Law Courts without avail, the sole redress must be in the
Legislature.
But he had now overshot his mark. Kane, who was then
elderly and an invalid, in a temperate letter asked Lucas to
state distinctly if the innuendo of corruption in the purchase
of the mills meant him, that he might disprove it in a Court
of Law. Everyone knew that Kane was aimed at, but the
then practice in libel cases required strict proof of the
innuendo. Here Lucas acted meanly indeed. In a scoffing
letter he refused to answer the straight question, evasively
suggesting that ' if the cap fitted " and so forth, and with serio
comic insolence regretting to hear of the Alderman's illness,
hf gravely offered to send him a medical cure. Then Kane
publicly addressed the city. His letter is dignified and even
pathetic. Through the long years, he said, in which he had
served the city, he had hitherto lived without stain or
reproach ; he recounted the whole affair of the Island Bridge
Mills. The charge that he was a creditor of the vendor is
indignantly disclaimed as entirely baseless, the course of the
treaty is disclosed with certifying letters from Mr. Darby of
Leap, and of all that were parties to the treaty, and the good
faith of the purchase is proved. He admits he had taken a
lease of some Hospital houses in Oxmantown, but that on
learning it was unlawful to hold them, he had long since
offered to surrender, but that his offer was declined, as the
leases were unprofitable. It is strange that seven years ex-
haustive search should have disclosed so little to warrant
Lucas' calumnies, and there is no doubt that the virulence
and failure of these were a chief cause in his condemnation
in the Castle and the Tholsel.
But in the Parliamentary biennial session, 1752 and 1753,
an opposition, headed by Speaker Henry Boyle, Prime
Sergeant Malone, and Cartel, Master of the Rolls, was, for
the first time formed against the Castle, and the undertak-
TEMP. TxEORC^E II., 1743-1760 IQ7
ing Lords Justices, then represented by the Primate, George
Stone. They successfully asserted the independence of the
Irish Commons as to money bills, with a vehemence
surpassing that of Lucas Iiimself, for which they had
so recently outlawed him, and they were now
named the Patriots. Their spirit electrified the
masses, and penetrated even to the court of aldermen,
in which an opposition section was now formed. In the
Parliamentary session, 1755-56, Adderley, an independent
member, took up the city case, and two bills were
brought in for a drastic change in the Corporation. No
longer striking at Lord Mayor and Aldermen only, they
asked for a radical reform of the Common Council. Their
grievance was that in the election of the ninety-six members
by the guilds, the merchants or Trinity Guild chose thirty-
one, leaving the twenty-four other guilds only sixty-five
between them, whilst the merchants were nearly all city
magnates, many of the aldermen belonging to it. The bills
now provided to divide the city into thirteen wards, each
of which was to choose its own aldermen and councillors,
thus opening all the offices directly or indirectly to popular
vote. The promoters fully relied on the support of the
Patriots, but the fire of their patriotism had now been
drowned in the sweet baths of promotion and pension.
Speaker Boyle, now Lord Shannon, with ;^2,ooo a year,
Carter, now Secretary of State, with £*i,ooo a year added to
his salary as Master of the Rolls, and Malone, now Chancellor
of the Exchequer, counselled the promoters to postpone the
bills. The Duke of Devonshire, L.L., gave the same advice,
but they persevered, and then ensued a high comedy. The
bills were allowed to pass without opposition, and even with
acclaim, but the postponers and opponents were laughing
in their sleeves, for they well knew that the Privy Council
would decline to forward the Bills to London under Poyning's
Act. So these became abortions, and the people, finding
they had imagined a vain thing, raged against the Patriots,
and took their revenge in riots, which alarmed and re-united
the Aldermen. Thomas Mead, who had strongly supported
igS FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
the Bills, was chosen Lord IMayor, and in the next session
the Bills were dropped.
But in 1756, James Grattan had become Recorder and a
governor on the death of Thomas Morgan, who had succeeded
Eaton Stannard six years before. He was an able man,
moderately conservative, and never adopted the tribunic
rule of his son, the patriot, Henry. Failing at the city
election in 1758, when he was beaten by Dunn, one of the
dissentient aldermen, who had resigned in order to oppose
him, he now set himself to bring back peace to the city, and
drew a moderate Bill which the Corporation by a majority
sent to the House by petition. The populace opposed it with
counter blasts, but it was coached through the House by
Sir Charles Burton, then city member, and our chairman in
1752, and it passed with slight modifications as 33 Geo. II.,
c. 16. The old constitution and old members of the Corpora-
tion were retained, but the Assembly were so far to share in
the choice of the mayoralty, that of three aldermen's
names submitted to them, they should select one ; if they
vetoed all three, new names were to be submitted, and so
till they selected someone, failing which, the aldermen could
elect the Lord Mayor, lest the city should be left without a
head. So as to the Sheriff, the Assembly, and not the alder-
men, were to select eight names, from which the aldermen
were to choose the two sheriffs of the year. As to the alder-
men, the Upper House were to send to the Assembly the
names of four sheriff's peers, from which the Assembly were to
select, to the vacated seat. Further, the Guilds were to
choose their representation in the Commons directl}' with-
out any conge d'elire to the Upper House. The Blue Coat
remained untouched.
Though the populace without still raged and rioted, this
compromise brought peace and held its ground till the
Corporation Act of 1840, and is thus a standing tribute to
the constructive ability of Recorder Grattan.
In his long exile Lucas applied his talents to medical
subjects with marked ability, though he occasionally
launched broadsides from across Channel, the last of which
k^^
From the Statue by Edward Smyth,
Executed for Royal Exchange, and now
in the City Hall of Dublin.
[To fai-e pap.' 190
TEMP. GEORGE II., 1743- 1760 199
was a pungent indictment of the placated patriots in 1759.
But on the death of (ieorge II. next year, he personally went
to the young King in London, was kindly received, and
returned to Dublin with the royal recommendations. A
nolle prosequi was entered by the Crown, he was now a
general favourite, for he had borne misfortune well, and was
elected for Dublin in the new Parliament of 1761. He had
obtained a mandamus from the King's Bench to reverse his
disfranchisement of 1750, which the Corporation did not
defend, being also advised that their action had been of
doubtful legality. He held his seat for the city to his death
in 1 77 1, and though he continued his campaigns against the
constitution of Parliament, he did not actively renew his war
on the Corporation or the Blue Coat.
The last echo of this Lucas feud sounds something like a
joke. In 1766, the Commons sent to the LTpper House a
petition to grant Charles Lucas, from the city funds, a life
annuity of £365, as a reward for his merit and public services,
but the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, judging it inexpedient
to give any countenance to the petition, " as the circum-
stances of the present juncture are of too much notoriety to
leave room to doubt the motive of such an application,"
unanimously and indignantly rejected the proposal.
Yet, on the whole, we must deem that Lucas merited
the posthumous honour by which his statue, one of the best
in the city, now stands one of the chief ornaments of the
City Hall. It was the work of a great Irish sculptor, Edward
Smyth, whose name deserves to be better remembered,
and is a splendid protrait in marble. It was executed
for the Royal Exchange, the founding of whicli
was carried through Parliament chiefly by Lucas's
driving force, and alone would give him a claim
to public gratitude. This statue, with the Exchange
itself, passed to the Corporation when they made their head-
quarters there. Smyth, who was the sculptor of the fine
figures on the Bank of Ireland, the Four Courts, and the
King's Inns, is so far connected with the Blue Coat, that he
was the pupil of Vierp\^l, the Italian Statuary, hereafter
200 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
noticed as charged with the ornamental stone work of the
present King's Hospitah
But this city storm was not an ill wind that blew nobody
good. In the years from 1743 to I75i,when it was blowing,
no less than eight of the aldermen nominated as Lord Mayors,
excused themselves from accepting office, presumably in
terror of the turmoil and the costs of litigation. Their
excuses were accepted, but only on the condition in each
case of a fine of twenty guineas to be given to the Blue Coat,
and a hogshead of claret each to the existing and the
incoming Lord Mayor. Thus one hundred and sixty guineas
gilds our memory of Charles Lucas.
These agitations did not damp the exuberant loyalty
of our city magnates. In December, 1744, they addressed
the King, congratulating him on his return from his great
victory at Dettingen, " in defence of the liberties of Europe."
Next year, upon the threat of Prince Charles Stuart's
invasion of Scotland, they again addressed him " with the
resolution of hazarding our lives and fortunes in support of
your Majesty's undoubted rights against this horrid enter-
prize." They offered a reward of £6,000 for the capture of
the Pretender, though it is hard to say where the reward
could have been found if claimed, for when the
Lord Lieutenant, the Duke of Devonshire, issued a
commission of array, requiring the city to raise
three regiments of militia and one of horse, and
in response the city voted £1,100 towards the
expenses of accoutrements, they were obliged to borrow the
money. Twenty-four of our Blue boys appear to have been
enrolled in these forces. We have some accounts submitted
to our governors in 1746, headed " Expended on the Boys
Malitia (s«c) which include ' Wilkinson's mounting 100 guns,
pikes, and halberts, embroidering twenty-four caps, a charge
for orange colours, gold lace for hats, and four drums.' "
Then, after Culloden, they felicitate the King on the Duke
of Cumberland's victory, " and the defeat of the French
designs to bring in the Pretender and to overthrow the
Protestant Succession." We may imagine with w^hat joy
TEMP. GEORGE II., 1743-1760 201
our Blue boys beat their six drums, and waved their
embroidered caps on that memorable occasion. In this year,
1744, is the last entry in our books of Swift's name. It is
pathetic, though merely the admission of a boy nominated
by him, for he was now in his last sad stage summed in Dr.
Johnson's line : — " And Swift expires a driveller and a show."
As the loyal addresses of the city emanated from the
Court of Aldermen, and were composed by the Recorder, all
concerned being governors of the Blue Coat, we may mention
that no less than eighteen - were presented to George II.
On his accession in 1727 ; on the birth of the Prince of Wales
(George III.) in 1738 ; on the taking of Porto Bello in 1740 ;
then the three already specified, in connection with Charles
Stuart ; on the Peace of Aix la Chapelle in 1748, and on the
King's return to England in 1750 ; in 1756 on the threat of
French invasion ; on the taking of Cape Breton in 1758 ; on
Hawke's victory at Ouiberon, and Wolfe's at Quebec in
1759, and on the majority of the Prince of Wales, George III.,
in the same year. The other addresses were on the occasion
of the births or marriages of the royal Princes or Princesses,
the King's children and grandchildren, who were often the
annual gifts to the nation. But besides these the city ad-
dressed Pitt at the close of the annus mirahilis, 1759, with
the freedom of Dublin in a gold box and like honours were
conferred on Hawke " for his great service in defeating the
French Fleet at Ouiberon, under ^Marshall Conflans, whose
known destination was a descent on Ireland." Like honour,
too, was given to Sir John Elliott for the final dispersion of
the French Armada, under Thurot, after his descent on
Carrickfergus. Thus we are conscious of the spirit of
Chatham at the great epoch in the evolution of the Empire
animating the life of Dublin, and awake even in the
Boardroom of our School.
In 1753, Sir Charles Burton being Lord Mayor, the great
sculptor, Roubiliac, was invited to estimate for an equestrian
statue of George II., but his charge of ;,^"2,ioo being thought
■^ They are printed at length in the 7, 8, 9, and 10 Vols, of Gilbert's
Calendar.
202 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
too high, Van Nost, who then worked in Dubhn, attended a
Committee at the Tholsel, and undertook the statue for
£i,ooo, exdusive of pedestal and quarterings. At the end of
three years he conveyed it by deed to the Corporation for
ever, in that burning year, 1756, and it was then erected
where it stands in the centre of St. Stephen's Green. The
pedestal and quarterings, of Ardbraccan stone, cost £730>
making a total expense of £1,730.
George II. died 23 October, 1760. Our Chairmen during
the reign were the Lord Mayors following : —
1744- 5 John Walker.
45- 6 Daniel Cooke.
46- 7 William Walker.
47- 8 Sir Geo. Ribton, Bart.
48- 9 Sir Robert Ross.
49-50 John Adamson.
50- I Thomas Taylor.
51-2 John Cooke.
52-3 Sir Chas. Burton, Bart.
53- 4 Andrew Murray.
54- 5 Hans Bailie.
55- 6 Percival Hunt.
56-7 John Fookes
57-8 Thomas Mead.
58- 9 Philip Crampton.
59-60 John Tew.
1727-
8
Sir Nat. Whitwell.
28-
9
Henry Burrowes.
29-30
Sir Peter Verdoen.
30-
I
Nat. Pearson.
31-
^
Joseph Nuttal.
32-
3
Humphrey French.
33-
4
Thomas How,
34-
5
Nat. Kane.
35-
6
Sir Richard Grattan.
36-
7
Sir John Somerville.
37-
8
William Walker.
3«-
9
John Macarell.
39-40
Daniel Falkiner.
40-
I
Sir Samuel Coote.
41-
2
William Aldrich.
42-
3
Gilbert King.
43-
4
David Few.
Sir Samuel Cooke was the son of the Sir Samuel of Queen
Anne's time ; Sir George Ribton was ancestor of the Wood-
brook family, Co. Dublin; he was the objective of Lucas's
attack, he was created a baronet in 1759 ; Sir Robert Rosse
was M.P. for Newry, and grandfather of the hero of Bladens-
burgh ; Philip Crampton's name was honourably continued
in the following generation in the persons of his great
nephews, the very eminent physician, Sir Philip, and by the
distingui-^hed judge of the Queen's Bench.
[ 203 ]
CHAPTER X.
TEMP. GEORGE III., 1 760-1 784, TO THE OPENING OF THE
NEW HOSPITAL.
In the earlier years of George III. the School was in a
transitional state, and the ordinary records are obscure.
The governors having spent many thousands on a new
Infirmary, and in partial reparations, now found that the
whole building was threatening to fall about their ears, and
that a thorough reconstruction on a new site was essential.
So far back as 1753 the Corporation had granted them the
old artillery yaid which ran westward to the Royal Barracks
from the rere of the old site in an askew strip to the south
of the Bowling Green, but this was practically useless in
presence of the adjoining decay. But in 1769 Sir Thomas
Blackball, whose name is ever to be held in honour at the
Blue Coat, was Lord Mayor, and took upon him the burden
which now had fallen on the Board. The members for the
City were then the young Marquis of Kildare and our old
friend Charles Lucas. In November, Kildare having obtained
a Committee on the petition of the Lord Mayor and
governors, brought up their report recommending the
prayer for a building grant, which the House merely
directed to lie on the table for perusal of members, but in the
next Session 1771, he vigorously renewed the claim. Kildare
had entered the House whilst a minor, and had now only
just reached twenty-one, but he was a most loyal and active
representative of Dublin. Son of the first Duke of Leinster,
his mother was the beautiful Lady Emily Lennox, daughter
of the Duke of Richmond, and Lord Edward Fitzgerald was
his younger brother. He was a prime favourite in the city.
204 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
A few years before he had presented the Lord Mayor and
City with a State Coach or berhn, and in the House we find
him moving for grants to improve the Harbour, and in aid
of the Grand Canal, in which the City was then deeply
concerned.
In 1 77 1 he moved the further report of the Blue Coat
Committee. It sets forth that the Committee had examined
in the most solemn manner Mr. James Goddard — -he was
then the Registrar of the Blue Coat and Clerk of t-he City
Commons ; that there were then 170 boys in the school,
that it was only now kept together by patchwork, and it was
absolutely necessary to rebuild it, for which £12,789 would
be necessary. Thereupon the matter was referred by the
House to the Committee of Supply, which was then regarded
as almost an equivalent to a grant.
Whilst the subject was thus before Parliament, the
City Assembly in October, 1771, in anticipation of a grant,
conveyed to the governors the whole remaining space of the
Bowling Green in Oxmantown, for the purpose of building
a new Hospital, which, they afftrmed, would not only be
necessary and useful to the School, but would tend much
to the improvement of that part of the old City Estate,
for they, at the same time, ordered that all the residue
of the Oxmantown Green should be laid out in building lots,
so as to be no longer unserviceable and waste, but an
ornament " to your honour's estate." ^ Thus the whole
site of the present Blue Coat was acquired, comprising the
old practising grounds of the City Militia, and the old
Bowling Green, as laid out a century before, whilst its
bounds on the west are the Royal Barracks, the gift of the City
to the great Duke of Ormonde just after the Restoration.
The surveys for these adjacent lots were entrusted to Ivory,
the Architect selected for the new building.
The Committee of Supplies, in 1771, having many other
irons in the fire, made no present grant, but, under the full
hope of one, the governors proceeded with their plans, and
on the i6th June, 1773, the first stone was laid, with great
1 Gilbert's Calendar, Vol. XIT., p. 156.
TEMP. GEORGE III., 1760-1784 205
ceremonial, by the Lord Lieutenant, Lord Harcourt. He
was a descendant of Sir Simon, Queen Anne's Attorney-
General, and Swift's friend, and ancestor of the late Sir
William Harcourt the brilliant Knight of Malwood.
The following notice of the pageant appears in Faiilkncrs
louriial of the day : —
Wednesday last, when His Excellency, Lord Harcourt,
ariived at the Blue Coat School, he was received by all the
officers of that house, who showed His Excellency several
of the apartments, which were in a most ruinous condition,
from whence his lordship, attended by the Lord Mayor
and other governors, went through one of the Courts which
was lined with two rows of the children, very clean and neatly
dressed, who made a most pleasing appearance, and sang
psalms in a most harmonious manner. His Excellency passed
down through a guard of the army into Oxmantown Green,
and laid the foundation stone with a silver trowel, with the
Lord Lieutenants arms engraved thereon, with the following
inscription :— " This stone was laid by H.E. Simon Harcourt
on Wednesday, i6th June, 1773, in the thirteenth year of
the reign of H. M. George HL Right Hon. Richard French,
Lord Mayor; James Sheil, James Jones, High Sheriffs;
Thomas Ivory, Architect."
This description is most probably by George Faulkner
himself, who was present as one of the governors. The
Dublin JournaVs notice of the pageant tells that His
Excellency, attended by the Lord Mayor, His Grace the
Archbishop of Dublin (Dr. Craddock), several Privy
Councillors, and many aldermen, went in grand procession
to the Hospital, and that after the ceremony all proceeded
to the Tholsel, wliere a most elegant dinner was provided
by the governors for His Excellency, which was served up
with the greatest decency and propriety.
A notable Governor at this time was George Faulkner,
mentioned above. He lives to-day in the reflected glory of
a satellite of the great Dean, whose Boswell he was in
Swift's later years, since when in 1730 his Journal introduced
him, and he became Swift's printer. But he did the Blue
Coat a good service, and thus has a niche in these annals.
Swift personally bullied him, and treated him with hauteur.
2o6 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
writing to him as " Mr. Faulkner," not even adding " Dear
Sir," but, like many great men, he liked toadies, and protected
them against all comers. In pleasant letters- he introduced
him to Pope, to Lord Bolingbroke, Lord Howth, to the
Archbishop of Cashel, Dr. Bolton, and Barber, Lord Mayor
of London, and, though sulkily, allowed him even to purloin
and publish his manuscripts in Dublin, where there was no
copyright, though he could himself have published in London,
where there was. Dr. Josiah Hort, Bishop of Kilmore,
afterwards Archbishop of Cashel, had sent Swift a satire
on the game of Quadrille, in which Sergeant Bettesworth,
the Dean's foe, was pilloried, requesting him " to peruse the
loose feathers, and send the kite to the Faulconer and set it
a flying ? " all which the Dean did. Bettesworth moved in
the House that this was a breach of privilege : -^ Faulkner
was indicted, imprisoned in Newgate, and as Swift tells Dr.
Hort, confined to a dungeon with common thieves and others
with infectious disease. But all this made Faulkner's fortune.
Henceforth he was a Dublin celebrity, he paid the gaoler's
fees, £25, with his pirated copies of Swift's works, and the
author ended by calling him the prince of printers. He was
somewhat fantastic, a little one-legged man, very vain, but
with a large head, and a great deal of ability. When Swift
was gone he was taken up by Lord Chesterfield, when
Lord Lieutenant, and made his confidant in Dublin affairs.
Chesterfield calls himself the only Lieutenant Faulkner ever
absolutely governed. He continued for life the great
repository of Swiftiana, telling the stories, showing the bust
by Roubiliac, now in Trinity College, to all the many who
visited him in his shop in Parliament Street. His edition,
in twenty volumes, 1759-1770, is the first great collection
of Swift's Works, and the basis of all that have followed, and
thus " Peter Paragraph," by which name he was laughed at
in Dublin, has been a substantial benefactor to literature.
In 1767 he was elected High Sheriff, but his health was
now failing, and in a grateful letter to the Lord Mayor he
-Swift's Epistolary Correspondence, 1735.
•'Letter, Sv/ift to Bishop of Kilmore, !2tb Mav, 17.^*^.
TEMP. GEORGE III., 1760-1784 207
asked to be excused. The lines on refusals, by usage, were
given to the Blue Coat ; these at this time were fixed at ten
guineas only, but Faulkner now particularly requested that
it should in his case be one hundred, as had been paid 161
years before, and this was graciously accepted. The
liberality proved most valuable, not only did it create a
precedent, but encouraged the cit}^ to raise the fine, a few
years later to £200."* In 1772 five sheriffs successively
declined, Luke Stock, Joseph Lynam, Harcourt Lightburne,
Benjamin Ball, and Robert Rickey, and their five hundred
guineas were assigned "towards rebuilding the Blue Coat
Hospital." Thereupon the Assembly in July raised the fine
to ;£200, and two more sheriffs declining, George Sutton and
Thomas Green, raised the fund from this source that year
to £925. In 1774 there were again four refusals, David
La Touche, Alderman Kirkpatrick, James Lane, and George
Maquay, thus bringing in £800 more. These gentlemen were
all governors, and found this a convenient form of con-
tributing to the building fund, which then so sorely needed
such aid. Faulkner remained on the Board to the last ; he
died in 1775.
Inspired by the prestige of the Harcourt Ceremonial, the
Lord Mayor and Corporation renewed their petition to
Parliament in the new Session of 1773 ; they now stated the
new grant from the city of the site, and that the plans would
cost ;^i6,ooo, whilst the failure to rebuild would be a fatal
loss " to the public in general, and to the Protestant Religion
in particular." Unfortunately, just as the subject was to
come before the House, it lost the powerful support of Lord
Kildare ; his father died in November, and he succeeded to
the Upper House as second Duke of Leinster. Tlie city
addressed him then in an affectionate farewell entrusted to
Sir Thomas Blackball and three others and the Recorder.
After condolence in the loss of his father, they return to His
Grace their most sincere and grateful acknowledgments
" for your very faithful and vigilant discharge of the
important duty of one of our representatives in Parliament,
"Gilbert's Calendar, Vol, 12.
2o8 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
assuring Your Grace that the very affectionate concern you
have manifested, not only in that capacity, but on every
other occasion, for the true interest and advantage of this
Metropohs have made an impression on our minds which
time can never efface."
Lucas was now dead. Dr. Clement, who succeeded him in
the city, took up the cause in the House ; but there was
merely a lepetition of the tale of the previous session. The
case of the petitioners was declared proved and deserving of
the aid of Parliament, and it was again referred to the
Committee of Supplies ; yet no supply was granted, and the
subject once more fell through.
But the governors still persevered in hope, and raised
several thousands in private subscriptions. Thomas Ivory
was one of the constellation of famous architects in that
Augustan age of Dublin building. He was Mastei of Drawing
to the Royal Dublin Society for many years, where Sir
Martin Archer Shee, afterwards President of the Royal
Academy in London and friend of Reynolds and Romney,
was one of his pupils. Another fine work of Ivory's is
Newcomen House, opposite the Castle gates, now the
Municipal Building of the Corporation, erected on the site of
the mansion of the Earls of Cork, and still known as Cork
Hill.
Ivory's designs for the new Blue Coat are splendid, their
fault being that they were too "ambitious and costly. So
much of them as have been carried out have cost more than
£20,000. To finish them as planned would have entailed at
least £10,000 more. In 1776 the governors presented the
original plans to George III. in a handsome morocco volume-
inscribed — " with all humility, by Your Majesty's dutiful
and loyal subjects and servants the governors." These
remained in the King's Library, until George IV. made a gift
of the Library to the British Museum. There they were
lately found b}^ our present governor, Mi. F. E. Ball. They
are a very fine specimen of the Dublin art of that day, and
are still regarded by experts in London as of exceptional
excellence, both artistic and technical. There are twelve
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TEMP. GEORGE III., 1760-1784 209
drawings, that of the front elc\'ation and facade being more than
three feet by nearly two. This has been substantially carried
out as the building now stands, save that the centre rises,
not to a dome, but to a lofty spire, highly enriched, in which
I\'ory took as his model that of St. Martin-in-the-Field, which
though very ornamental, yet, being Gothic, is hardly in
harmony with the general Italian conception. But in the
re re the plans show a great quadi^angle, whose sides run north
and south from the Chapel and the Schoolroom respectively
in arched stone cloisters, over which, in a single storey, is a
great range of sleeping rooms for the boys, and this arrange-
ment is partly continued on the western side, opposite the
main building, to a very fine dining hall in the centre, from
which branch some fourteen offices on each side — dairy,
laundry, storerooms. All this intended quadrangle was
abandoned. Then the interior of the Chapel as designed is
gracefully ornate ; there are double Corinthian pilasters
between each of the windows on the south wall, and over
these a classic cornice beneath an arabesque frieze all round
the church ; nearly all the above that was decorative had,
alas, to be given up for lack of funds.
Associated with Ivory in the artistic work as executed was
Simon Vierpyl, an Italian statuary, to whom we may fairly
attribute much of the elegance seen in the finished facade.
He had been imported by Lord Charlemont for the purposes
of the beautiful mansions in Rutland Square and at Marino,
which he was then constructing, and especially for the Italian
casino in the grounds at Clontarf. Charlemont and his
travelling companion, Edward Murphy, had found Vierpyl
in Rome, where he executed for Murphy a commission for
which he should be better remembered in Dublin to-day.
This was to copy in terra cotta some seventy busts of the
Roman emperors and empresses in the museums of the
Capitol and Vatican. Some of these as executed are of very
high excellence, for Vierpyl spent several laborious years over
the work. Murphy, having no adequate show place for them,
left them by will to Lord Charlemont, whose library in
Charlemont House, Palace Row, they decorated for many
p
210 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
years. His grandson, the late Earl, in 1868 presented them
to the Royal Irish Academy, where some sixty of them, still
complete, may be seen. Asked by Murphy in Dublin to say
what he considered their real value, Vierpyl writes at length,
shewing they are unique, as the first and only collection ever
made by a single artist, and, having regard to the time and
toil spent, he says that if a monarch engaged him to model
the series again, he would not take less than £500 a year for
ever.^ Vierpyl was naturalized in Dublin, and became a
member of the City Commons ; he received the special
thanks of the Ballast or Harbour Board for his services in
connection with the Poolbeg Lighthouse. The front of St.
Thomas's Church in Marlborough Street was executed by him
from a design of Palladio in Venice. He lived and died in
Bachelor's Walk.*^ Edward Smyth, the sculptor, as already
mentioned, was a pupil of his, who, as an original artist,
surpassed his master.
Our new building progressed intermittently ; means did not
permit of a contract with a single contractor at an estimated
cost, so a Building Committee, with Sir Thomas Blackball
chairman, employed the tradesmen directly, paying them
when and as best they could. The stone work was assigned
to Vierpyl ; the others were chiefly members of old and long
known Dublin freemen families. Semple was bricklayer ;
Thorpe, plasterer ; Cranfield, carver ; the extensive
woodwork was done by Chambers. Blackball personally
superintended everything in all the long years, collecting
subscriptions and expending them. The Assembly at the
same time undertook the surrounding building lots as planned
by Ivory ; these showed the broad thoroughfare through the
Green from Queen Street to the front of the New School,
three-fourths of which included the north side of the Old
School site. It appears that what is called a great " gulph
hole " existed here then. Was this the ancient Scald
Brother Hole of Stanihurst ? The city entrusted the
execution of these improvements to Blackball, and when,
'' 15th August, 1774, Charlemont Papers, Histoiical Manusciipts, p. 323.
8 Whitelaw's History of Dublin, Vol. II., p. 11 86.
TEMP. GEORGE III., 1760-1784 211
shortly after, the street was named, it deservedly became
Blackhall Street. So, too, when the road from Stoney
Batter to the Liffey was completed in front of the new Blue
Coat gates, it was called Blackhall Place, and thus our
worthy's name is still written on the site to record his devotion
of more than thirty years. He became a governor in
1761, when sheriff, and was made an alderman in 1763.
On the Building Committee Blackhall was well assisted by
Mr. Benjamin Ball, who, on declining the shrievalty in 1772,
paid his hundred guineas fine, and thus, being a sheriff's peer,
became a governor ; he was kinsman of the founders of the
eminent banking firm, and was ancestor of the late Lord
Chancellor Bali, through whose son, Mr. F. Elrington Ball,
his name is worthily represented on the Board of the Blue
Coat still. But funds were still lacking, and relief was again
sought in Parliament in the Session of 1777. Sir Samuel
Bradstreet, who had succeeded James Grattan as Recorder
in 1766, and also as Member for the city, now urged our
petition, but v/ith no happier result than that it was again
ordered to lie on the table for perusal.
There was now nothing for it but to cut down the plans,
and Blackhall and his committee were in 1779 directed to
confer with the architect for a reduction of the offices, which
meant a surrender of the fine cloistered quadrangle on which
Ivory was then engaged ; but the direction to Ivory " to
contract rather than increase the expense of these " seems
to have mortified him sorely, for next year he resigned when
the work was only half finished, though fortunately not till
after his fine conception of the main building had been
secured. The governors appointed in his place one of their
own number, Mr. John Wilson, who was contractor of the
city works, and whom they had also made registrar and
agent ; he will be mentioned hereafter. Over tlie mantel-
piece in the Boardroom now hangs an oil painting presented
to the governors some fifty years after, in 1835, by Mr. Ball,
the son of the Benjamin Ball just noticed, but the execution
of which we can fix as in this year, 1779, for it evidently
represents this conference with Ivory for the reduction of
212 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
his plans. It is an excellent picture b}^ Jonathan Trottei\
who attained some eminence as a portrait painter ; he had
studied in Rome. There are nine figures, all having the
character of good likenesses ; nearly all of them can be
identitied. x\t the extreme right stands Trotter himself,
palette in hand, talking to Benjamin Ball, a handsome
gentleman clothed in black like a bishop ; at the farthest left
stands Wilson, just appointed registrar, but not yet architect,
for in the centre is an oval table ; at its head is seated, green-
coated, well-looking, a gentleman who points to the open
plans, and is anxiously questioning Vierpyl, who sits opposite
in his working white jacket, and who seems nonplussed and
not quite pleased with the examination. Between them, in
the centre, is Ivory, in maroon coat, attentively listening to
Vierpyl and the chairman ; beside the latter is seated a
gentleman in scarlet doublet, half turning his face as if to
speak to Wilson ; either he or the man in green we assume to
be Blackball, but as both are at the head of the table we
cannot decide. Two other figures standing between these
and W^ilson are said to represent Aldermxan Trulock and
Alderman Tucker, who were both on the Building Com-
mittee.
The Boardroom where this picture hangs is the only part
of the house completely finished as Ivory planned it. save,
perhaps, the front facade and the two Italian corridors, with
their arched niches on the ground and first stories. It is a
very fine example of the best work of the period, thirty-four
feet long by twenty-one and fourteen feet high, with a rich
Corinthian cornice and a coved ceiling laced with graceful
traceries. The three windows face the west and the square
of the Royal Barracks, known as the Palatine, with the
bright green playground between. This room has been long
the subject of recurrent architectural praise in Dublin.
Beneath Trotter's painting is the fine chimney-piece
presented for the room by Mr. George Ensor in 1780 ; it is of
white Carrara marble, of which much had been imported
at this time by Vierpyl, and of which there are Ionic pillars
at each side ; the panels below the sill are of ruddy Sienna
TEMP. GEORGE TIL, i>6o-i784 213
marble. It seems to have incurred some damage in carriage,
for a contemporaneous entry directs Merpyl to repair it, and
iix it up in the Boardroom as soon as possible.
The great school room and the dining hall were finished ;
in the latter the quaint and somewhat imposing Royal Arms
of Charles II., gilt and emblazoned, and now taken from the
old building, were erected over the central lireplace as they
are to be seen to-day.
But the Chapel was still unfinished ; the dormitories, the
ofifices, the kitchen, were only half complete ; and in the old
crumbling building the old chapel was of necessity used as a
schoolroom, so far a sanctuary from the menacing walls ; so,
in the Session 1781, a linal and vehement effort was made
for a grant from Parliament. At the same time the Lord
Lieutenant, Lord Carlisle, Mr. Secretary Eden, and Lord
Harcourt were ui gently besought, but without much result.
The new petition was committed to Sir Samuel Bradstreet
and Dr. Clement, the city members. It was the most
persuasive appeal yet made." It detailed how in 1689 the
ancient edifice had been turned into a ban-ack, and having
been restored at great expense to the citizens, had had the
honour to be the Parliament House during the erection of
the present one, but from age and these changes and
alterations it was now necessarily taken down ; that
the governors had begun their new Hospital on
a plan for 300 boys, relying on the beneficence
of the legislature " who had given bountifully to
everything that can promote the prosperity of the
kingdom," and flattered themselves with the modest pre-
sumption that the Parliament whose generous grants had
reached the remotest parts of the land would not now
overlook this useful charity at home, which had flourished
so many years and now needed the fostering care of the
legislature to complete it.
And yet this ad captandum appeal was doomed like its
predecessors only to lie on the table. It is not easy now to
guess the true causes of this ill success, for, as hinted in this
" Com. Journal, 17S1, 218.
214 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
petition, the House was then lavishing money on all sorts of
projects, not only through the island, but in Dublin, con-
tinuing the policy by which, when defeated in the claims
to pass money bills without even the formal consent of the
Crown, they revenged themselves by voting as they pleased
all the surplus of the Hereditary Revenue of Ireland, the
balance of which only, after providing for the annual votes,
was pa^^able into the Exchequer. The Commons Jonrjial
shows, for instance, that in the three years 1779-81 £10,000
was voted to the Dublin Society, -{19,000 to the Foundling
Hospital, /i4,ooo to the Incorporated Society, £6,000 to the
House of Industry, £3,500 to the Hibernian School, and
£3,000 to Swift's Hospital. But new favourites make old
ones unfashionable.
The work after Ivory's resignation, which was absolutely
necessary to permit of transferring the boys to their new-
quarters, cost £6,000. This was executed under Wilson over
a period of three years, and for almost the whole the Hospital
remained indebted to the tradesmen. At long last, at
Christmas, 1783, the Committee reported to the Board that
the accommodations were so far completed for the reception
of the boys and servants that these were now received into
the new Hospital, " and most comfortably provided for."
We may hope that the inmates themselves concurred in this
comfortable judgment. j\Iany subsequent entries make this
somewhat doubtful.
[ 215 ]
CHAPTER XI.
TEMP. GEORGE III. 1 784-1 800.
The School resumed in the new buildings in the opening of
1784. It might have been thought that the fine Renaissance
palace which it exteriorly seemed to be, would now have
attracted the public support necessary to complete it and
extend its operations. Such hopes failed, owing to the very
events which might hav^e seemed likely to secure them : the
new Independent Parliament, with the consequent vast
increase in the notables and nobles resident in Dublin. For
the expanded arena into which the public life of Ireland had
now entered diverted men's gaze from things so local as a
city school. In the first half of its stormy career, this
legislature was engaged with questions of imperial moment,
which were closely involved with those of Great Britain,
such as John Foster's great Act for the Protection of Corn
in 1784, with his refusal to protect Irish manufactures, which
latter raised vehement riots in the city ; the discussion of
William Pitt's offers of a commercial union with
Ireland, and its final ill-starred rejection because
Ireland refused to adhere to the British colonial
tariff ; then the Irish demand to vote for the
Regency, when George III. was ill, in complete independ-
ence of the Parliament or Ministry in London; and many
other assertions of Ireland's unrestricted autonomy. The
last decade was passed in the fever of the scarcel}^ veiled
rebellion, which overtly broke out in 1798, fomented all
through by the United Irishmen, ever since, assuming control
of the Volunteer movement, they leagued with France for
the establishment of a Republic on the principles and lines
of the regicide revolution.
2i6 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
All through these conflicts, from first to last, rose the
voice of Grattan, now in superlative eloquence, oftener, still,
in rhapsodic rhetoric, and this, with the clash of parliamentary-
debate, so filled the public ear, as to leave small entry for the
appeal or the claims of a Municipal School Board. Our
Minutes, which, in the previous hundred years, are studded
with the names of distinguished statesmen and courtiers,
show, in the last sixteen years of the centur}^, the attendance
of only three Privy Councillors, the Archbishop of Dublin,
Dr. Fowler, who was present only once, the Archbishop of
Cashel, Dr. Agar Ellis, who was present once in 1786, and
twice in the next year, when he was Viscount Somerton, and
the Right Hon. David La Touche, who appears once in 1786,
and only twice the year after. There are no other governors
at the meetings outside the Corporation members, except
the Bishop of Cloyne, Dr. Bennett, the Bishop of Kildare,
Dr. George Lewis Jones, elected in 1790, and Archdeacon
Fowler of Dublin, all whose visits are few and far between,
and Baron George, who, however, atoned for many absentees;
the Primate, Lord Rokeby, was elected, indeed, but we
cannot find that he ever attended.
The City Hall itself was drawn into the current of public
events. The enthusiasm, kindled by the Volunteer movement
was everywhere contagious for a time ; in those stirring years
riots in Dublin were rife and continuous, and the agitations
outside, doubtless, penetrated the Tholsel, and tended to
disintegrate the solid Williamite phalanx with whom the
Blue Coat had been so long a primary concern. We have an
ominous entry, 20 October, 1789, when James Napper Tandy
appears as a governor, a stormy petrel on an inland lake.
What he came for then we do not know, but the routine
details of that day had little to engage his troublous spirit,
and this was his first and only apparition. It was just at the
close of his earlier period as a tribune of the people, when,
treading in the steps of Charles Lucas, he made war on the
civic authorities; he was now about to embark on the seas
of conspiracy and high treason, whereon he tossed to the
end, seeking with Wolfe Tone to overthrow the British empire
TEMP. GEORGE III., 1784-18CO 217
by a French invasion, even though this might have made
Ireland an appanage of France.
We now find the attendances, even of our aldermen, are
meagre. Save when an appointment was in the wind, often
there was not a quorum. Boons to the Blue Coat had
hitherto often originated in the City Assembly ; now its
appeals are coldly received or rejected, and even the old
grants are reluctantly maintained, and this was not for want
of funds, for the city was freely spending in other directions.
The weakening of sympathy at the centre tended to weaken
the old attraction to our Board of great personages outside,
whose presence had always attracted in turn that of the
citizen governors, who were glad to sit in conference with
them, and their abstention now increased the disposition
of many of the Corporators to stay away. •
Whatever the combination of causes may have been, we are
forced to conclude that in these years of the Grattan
Parliament, the public iuterest in the Blue Coat had reached
its nadir with a corresponding decline within.
Just before the re-opening in 1784, the Rev. Hamilton
Morgan resigned. He had succeeded Ralph Grattan as
chaplain and headmaster in the sixties, and the first act of
the governors now was to appoint his son, Mr. Allen Morgan,
in his stead. They were both University gentlemen, but
both lacked the qualities that go to make a great head of a
public school; yet their successive tenure of office covers
nearly seventy years. The father had never taken his duties
very seriously; he was an easy-going gentleman, who had
married young, and came to the Blue Coat as a mere means
of living, but he had interest outside ; he had been a school
fellow of Foster, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and,
through the Duke of Leinster, was now appointed in the
rectory of Dunlavin. As his son, Allen, in after years,
devolved his teaching duties on others, and assumed to be
chaplain only, with much ill consequences, as hereafter seen,
we note here that when elected in January, 1784, he was
called before the Board, Lord Mayor Thomas Green in the
chair, and the duties of chaplain and headmaster, as defined
218 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
by Swift, were read to him. He promised, if elected, to comply
with them, and on this basis was approved by the Archbishop
of Dublin, Dr. Fowler, as provided by the charter.
Then followed the consecration of the chapel by the
Archbishop ; it w^as opened for Divine Service on Trinity
Sunday, 1784, in the presence of a large assemblage, con-
vened by public notice in Faulkner's Journal. The painting
of " The Resurrection " by Waldron, just then executed,
was placed where it hangs now behind the Communion
Table.
Seekmg extraneous aid, the governors, in 1785, elected
the Primate, Lord Rokeby, and sent a deputation of the
Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas Blackball, and others, to wait on
his Grace. He was a man of great administrative power, of
large fortune, and of noble munificence. Created Lord
Rokeby in 1777, from his romantic estate on the Greta in
Yorkshire, the scene of Sir Walter Scott's Rokeby, he is,
perhaps, better remembered in our day as Primate Robinson,
and by the splendid charities which long bore his name.
Though we count him upon our roll of worthies, he would
seem to have been unable to take an active interest in the
Hospital, engrossed by the great institutions he founded in
Armagh, and the building of churches all over the province.^
Of him, Grattan said, " he has the first episcopal dignity
in this realm; it is his right, he takes it by virtue of the
commanding benevolence of his mind, in right of a superior
and exalted nature."
In 1785, Denis George became Recorder and a Governor.
On the death, in 1784, of Sir Samuel Bradstreet, who had
been with us for eighteen years, Dudley Hussey succeeded
him. George continued an able and faithful friend of the
Blue Coat till far into the new century. In 1795 he w^as
promoted to be a baron of the Exchequer, but was then
re-elected on the Board, as the Recorders were upon it, only
ex-officio. It was he, who, with our Lord Ma^'or Chairman,
Henry Gore Sankey, inaugm'ated the building of the new
Recorder's and City Court in Green Street. On 14 June,
1 Right Hon. J. T. Ball's Reformed Chuych of Ireland, p. 221.
TEMP. GEORGE III., 1784-1800 219
1792, they went in State together from the Tholsel. Sankey
who is styled in the newspaper account, " a bright freemason,"
then practically exercised the craft of the order. Clothed
in its apron and insignia, he laid the first stone with his silver
trowel, and, of course, the ceremony ended in a banquet.
Whitmore Davis was the architect. On his promotion
George was succeeded as Recorder by William Walker, who
held the office and sat on the Board for twenty-seven years
to 1822, when he was followed by Sir Jonas Greene.
There has been little change since in the original aspect
of the chapel. In 1787 the organ gallery, with seats for the
choir boys, was erected by Sir Thomas Blackhall's com-
mittee. The other boys' seats ran in rows below, as now, but
these, instead of facing the Communion Table and Pulpit
ran parallel to the side walls and central aisle, with high
partitions between each tier, thus fairly screening the sitters
from the chaplain's ken, and enabling them to while away
sermon time with elaborate carvings on the panels in fiont
of them. This alluring arrangement continued to some
twenty years ago, when a special fund was raised for repair-
ing the chapel, mainly aided by an inaugurating ceremonial,
when Archbishop Lord Plunket preached an eloquent
sermon based on Nehemiah's restoration of the Temple.
The old partitions were then found inscribed with the initials
of generations of Blue boys and hieroglyphics, many and
enigmatic as the inscriptions on an Egyptian column. But
high plain panels were hideous, and the boys might have
pleaded the expediency of some wood carving upon them.
The walls now bear some tablets in memory of some of our
worthies of the past. The latest of these is a handsome
brass, by Mayer of Munich, in memory of John Hatchell,
one of our best governors for forty years; it records his
bequest of /500 to the Hospital, appropriated by his
executor, Mr. Louis Perrin Hatchell, also a governor, to the
completion at long last of the Cupola. This was dedicated
last year by Archbishop Peacocke of Dublin.
The governors now found themselves exposed to the
proverb of the men who began to build but were not able
220 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
to finish. Not only were the buildings not finished, but the
builders were unpaid for those that were to the amount of
some £4,000, and there were no funds in hand to meet this.
To Chambers, the carpenter and joiner, alone, £1,600 was
due, for which the Board could only give him debentures
on the Hospital itself at six per cent, and several hundreds
each were owing to the quarries, the masons, bricklayers,
iron masters, carvers, and painters. These they could only
keep at bay by paying heavy interest. Even in 1787 they were
forced to give live per cent debentures to all, until in 1790
we read that the builders are now very importunate, and the
governors resolved to pay the most pressing out of their
capital lent to the citv at four per cent, and thus to save
something by reduction of interest. Even Ricky's bill for
the boys' clothing in 1783, could only be met by half yearly
interest extending over ^-ears.
In this distress which lasted more or less to the end of
the century and after, the governors resorted to many
devices which were not attended with much success. They
drew up a petition to the king, with one to the Duke of
Rutland, the Lord Lieutenant, earnestly seeking the royal
bounty. Nothing appears to have come of this. The Duke
was indeed most popular, and took a generous interest in
the Dublm charities, but for the reason above mentioned,
the tide of favour at this epoch had passed to other objects
of government bounty. Bartholomew Mosse's Rotunda
Hospital seems now to have absorbed the sympathy of the
wealth}^ and the great. The Duke visited it in state, and
in his honour, the gardens lately laid out behind it were
now named Rutland Square, with Granby Row, from the
Duke's second title, for its western side. Palatial houses
were now being erected all round ; the place became the
centre of fashionable Dublin, and the Rotunda the spoiled
child of ladies of high degree ; large grants were voted to it
by Parliament, and a tax on carriages and sedans, once
granted to our Blue Coat, but taken from it,
was now transferred to the Lying-in Hospital.
Had he lived, the Duke would probably have helped
TEMP. GEORGE III., 1784- 1800 221
us, but he died in Dublin whilst Lord Lieutenant
in 1787, at the early age of thirty-three, to the
universal sorrow, for he was beloved and beneficent, as his
noble grandson, who so long represented the House of
Manners, has been in our day.
Then the Board attacked the governors of Erasmus
Smith, their old objective, claiming as a right a large con-
tribution to the new building in view of their twenty
nominations to the School.'- The E. Smith governors on our
Board are directed to " to support our claim with firmness,"
and again to attend at their own next meeting, and " make
a demand of a sum of money due to this charity towards the
rebuilding of this Hospital," but we had not then on our side
the treasurer of E. Smith's, who, so often before and after,
has helped the Blue Coat in emergencies, and for the then
present we asked in vain. We might have yearned for the
days of Archbishop King. Nothing could be hoped for from
the Corporation now; they were, themselves, obliged to
retrench, and by an Act of Econom}^ resolved on withdraw-
mg from the Hospital the Toll Corn annuity of ^250, granted
in Queen Anne's time, of which £750 was in arrear in 1784,
and it was only by strong pressure they were persuaded to
suspend this order from time to time.
All that the Blue Coat could ever extract from the
G rattan Parliament were some lines imposed on market
jurors for non-attendance, by 27 Geo. HL, c. 46 (1787), and
penalties inflicted by the Dublin Presentment Act of 1793.
The fines were heavy, but the magistrates were slow to inflict
them, and they did not add much to the Hospital revenue*
A project for Charity Sermons in aid now adopted, had
a fair success. Dr. Craddock, the Dean of St. Patrick's,
complying with the request of the governors, preached in
our new chapel on Sunday, 29 May, 1785, to a large congre-
gation. He had a good name in Dublin, for a few years
before, when his Deanery House, which had been Swift's,
went on fire, regardless of all other possessions, his only
thought was for the portrait of his great predecessor, by
-8th December, 17S4, 3nl Decembei, 1789.
222 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Bindon, presented by the Chapter in 1738, and, perhaps,
the best of his extant likenesses. Dean Craddock himself
carried it from the flames into the street, and saved it, to be
still a chief treasure in the home of the Dean of St. Patiick's.
Shortly after, the governors approached Kirwan, the
greatest pulpit orator of the day — some have said that he has
never been equalled. His Charity Sermons were irresistible ;
thrilled with emotion, ladies would tear off their bracelets
and jewels and fling them on the plate, and men's gold
watches liave been placed there too. One of these sermons
alone resulted in a collection of /i,400. Though his oratory
did not stand the test of printing and time as those of some
great pulpit orators have done, it is doubtful if any surpassed
him in living power. Educated for the priesthood by the
Jesuits at St. Omer, he conformed to the Established Church
in Ireland, but was never promoted beyond the Deanery of
Killala.-^ Yet, his eloquence was the theme of wonder
outside church-going people. Grattan, in the acme of his
own fame, exclaimed of him : — " He came to interrupt the
repose of the pulpit. The curse of Swift was upon him, to
have been an Irishman, and a man of genius, and to have
used it for the good of his country."
Kirwan cordially accepted the invitation of our governors,
and promised to preach on the first Sunday in May, 1785,
for the benefit of the chaiity. All the due arrangements
were made, and the Rev. Dr. Law is thanked for giving his
parish church for the purpose. We have no direct record
of the result, but the accounts for this year show an entry : —
" Collection, Charity Sermon, £145,'' from which great
contribution to a single offertory, in those days, we may
fairly assume that Kirwan's sermon still lives in the stones
of the edifice it aided to raise.
Another entry near these suggests the activity of the
Dublin coiners then : — " Bad silver in chapel, £5 13s. gd."
Such precarious help, however, could never have enabled
the Hospital to stem this period of depression and public
apathy. But if public authorities withheld direct aid, the
^ Ball's Reformed Church iu Ireland, p. 226.
TEMP. GEORGE III., 1784-1800 223
legislation of the Grattan Parliament in the early eighties,
indirectly almost supplied an equivalent. Of John Foster's
measure, giving a protection duty against foreign corn, with
a large bounty on Irish grain exported to England, Mr.
Lecky says : — " It is one of the capital facts of Irish history.
In a few years it changed the face of the land, and made
Ireland to a great extent an arable instead of a pastoral
country."-*
If re-enacted it might have that result again.
This, coupled with the bounties lavishl}^ though strangely
voted for the inland carriage of corn from the rural districts
to the Irish towns and ports, enhanced the rental of the
Hospital estates amazingly. Our Nodstown, yielding £182
rent in the twenty-one preceding years, was, in 1785, re-let
at £527. So the tithes of IMullingar, previously leased at
£135 yearly, were, in 1791, re-let at a rent of £210, and 188
acres of Kilcotty, in Wexford, were, in 1795, let for twenty-
one years at £1 8s. per acre. This had been devised to the
Hospital by the will of Mr. George Kavanagh many years
before, but only this year came into its possession. This
good estate has since been lost, apparently through
negligence and the Statute of Limitations. And in 1793 the
site of the old Hospital, extending along the entire south of
Blackball Street, was leased to Thos. Wildridge for ninety-
nine years, at a rent of £100, with a covenant to build
dwelling-houses from end to end. When twelve of these had
been erected he failed, and was allowed to let the western end
for stores. At the end of the term, in 1893, the street fell,
with the Hospital, into a sad state of dilapidation, but has
now been very profitably restored by the present governors.
Thus strengthened, the governors undertook some of the
sadly unfinished work. In 1792, the infirmary, so essential
for the School then, was built as it now stands. But instead
of husbanding their revenue to pay off their discreditable
debts, and to complete the sad omissions of original plans,
they spent their money in repeatedly raising the salaries of
indifferent or worthless officers, and giving them pensions.
■* Ireland in the iSth Century, Vol. II,, 386.
224 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Sir Thomas Blackliall, who had been the chief corner-stone
of the new building, and had attended every meeting for five
years after its opening, guarding all its interests, was unable
to be present after 1789, though he lived to 1796, and others
of the original projectors were dropping off ; and so we find
some, even of the new work, already falling into ruin, for it
could not be expected that unpaid tradesmen would not
have scamped much of their work. 5 The laundry and wash-
houses are found in 1795 being " very ruinous," and are
allowed to remain so for more than two years, and so we
read of the porter's lodge and entrances to the chapel, whilst
the bowling green and all the curtilage round, and in front, are
left with half finished walls, and without gates, at the mercy
of trespassers from without and truants from within. And yet
we note £37 yearly added to Mr. Allen Morgan's salary in
1795, following an entry in 1794, of Doyle, a tradesman's
bond for /350 with three and a half years interest due ; in
1795 the bond is taken up and a new one issued at 6 per cent.,
and in 1796 two new debentures of £100 each, at the same
interest, are handed to Dixon, the shoemaker, for the boys
shoes.
And at this time the poor boys seem to have fared but
poorly; unable freely to use the playground, which was used
for grazing, because the low walls were tempting, they
petitioned the governors for leave to go to the Phoenix Park
in 1790. This fair requset was flatly refused, so an entry two
years after causes no surprise ; it orders " that the worst of
the boys that quit the house without leave, be punished by
confinement for some hours in the coal vault, and deprived
■' But the main building is sound and solid. A short time since a trades-
man engaged at some repairs, turned to Rev. Mr. Richards, our head
mastei,who was regarding his work — " Look at those," said he, pointing
to the fine cut stone in the facade, " the men that raised those knew what
they were at, tJiey knew how to build. Look here, I have a new house that
I pay /29 a year for, and when I'm at my dinner, I can hear the meat
fryin' on the fryin'-pan in the kitchen next door, and the doors shut.
That's what they're buildin' now." "But," said iSIr. Richards, "was it
not a pity the old Governors had not enough money to complete the original
design ?" "Original design ? Sure when the King came and looked at
the place — 'Why.' says his Majesty, 'that's more like a Palace than a
House of Pai)i.' " He did not specify the monarch who had this notion of
a school
TEMP. GEORGE III., 1784-1800 225
of shoes and stockings for three days, and go to bed supper-
less for three nights." This rather savage minute is some-
what softened by another of the same day, instructing a
committee to take steps " to give the bowhng green to the
Bhie Boys," and yet this was only effected in two years
more, when the walls were partially raised, and the windows
were latticed, and at last on 20 May, 1794, the old bowhng
green of Oxmantown was opened for the boys to play at all
hours, and so it remains to this day.
And yet in these years the Hospital enjoyed some valuable
private gifts; one deserves special mention. A boy, named
Hemming, had been trained in the Hospital in the fifties.
He entered the army or navy and saved money. In 1795,
the governors are informed that Captain Hemming had left,
by his will, +^300 to his old school, with ;^2,ooo more subject
to a life estate. The immediate gift was applied to the
infirmary, the reversionary^ £2,000 only fell in 1838, and this
was the subject of heated discussion with the governors some
years afterwards, for having been invested as capital in the
name of ^Ir. Mallet and two other governors, when it was
needed for current expenses by the Board, Mallet angrily
refused to sign tlie transfers, and was only forced to do so by
an mi unction bill in Chancery, as to which he gave indignant
evidence before the Endowed Schools Commission in 1858.
Hemming's sister was housekeeper to the Hospital when the
first legacy fell in, and the governors gratefully super-
annuated her at full salary shortly afterwards. No one
should challenge that act of grace.
Of the governors who loyally wrought for the School like
Blackball to the end. Alderman Sutton should be named.
For the immediate needs at the opening he advanced £750,
and in 1794 he presented the Board with £200, for which
their thanks were ordered to be printed in the Dublin
Journal, and the nomination of two boys so long as he was
a member was conferred upon him ; a course which was often
pursued from the beginning towards our benefactors ; it has
long fallen into disuse, but the usage might well be restored
at the present day. Sutton had proposed, when the new
Q
226 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
tuilding opened, that all the charities of Dublin should be
asked for aid, on the plea that the new palace, if filled, would
indirectl}^ lighten the burden of them all, but this appeal did
not prove fruitful. Towards the close of the century, the
governors, of whom he still was one, became more earnest.
Archbishop Fowler came there in 1797. Some twelve
hundred pounds came in for six sheriffs' fines. The old
Dublin Rope Walk was now w^alled off and sold, the ruined
laundry was restored, and the building debts were largely
reduced, and in the very last days of the old centuiy we have
an order to remove the cattle from the bowling green.
In 1791, on Alderman Sutton's proposal, the Board
directed that " a large Northumberland Mahogany Table to
accommodate 24 persons, and covered with green cloth,
be provided for the Boardroom, also 24 chairs covered with
fine black leather, and a two armed chair, of the same
material, for the Lord Mayor," This was done ^^dth a
direction to give " The Old Armchair," to our Surgeon
Whiteway, Swift's pupil. The table, armchair, and 22 of the
chairs are still in our boardroom. They are good specimens
of the sound Dublin work of the eighteenth century, and
this incident is noted here as these ladder chairs have reached
in our time a high value in the luxury market of London.
In the period comprised in this chapter there were many
changes in the Blue Coat staff. John Whiteway, who had
been surgeon in the old school, carried down the connection
with Swift ; he was the son of Martha Whiteway, the Dean's
cousin, and his amanuensis and guarding companion m his
failing years, and to the Dean's gratitude he owed his
profession. He fills a long paragraph in Swift's will, which
directs that he is to be brought up as a surgeon, and places
£100 in his mother's hands towards this end, to be paid out
of the arrear of his church livings." £5 is added for buying
" such physical and chirurgical books as Dr. Grattan shaU
think fit for him." He was a very effective member of
our staff, and took a leading part in the building and manage-
ment of the infirmary. Dying in 1797, he was succeeded for
two years by Surgeon Philip Woodroofe, on whose death in
TEMP. GEORGE III. 17S4-1800 227
1799, Surgeon William Leake was appointed, also a valuable
officer, who served the school for the more than thirty years
that followed. Dr. Archer was replaced as ph3^sician by Dr.
Harvey, in the first year of the new school in 1784, and on
his resignation, ten years after, Dr. Bryan was elected, and
continued to be ph3^sician into the new century. All these
medical officers were members of our Board. Harcourt
I>ightbume, who had succeeded Thomas White as steward,
on the opening of the new building, died in 1792, and in his
place Alderman Edmund Beasley was appointed, one of the
worst appointments the governors ever made ; it might have
fairlv been called a flagrant job. Sheriff and alderman in
1775. he had been himself a governor some seventeen years.
He was elected steward at fust on strict conditions that it
was to be only for a year, and during pleasure, and that he
was to resign his seat on the Board whenever asked, but
not only was he retained as steward, with his maintenance
and much-needed room in the Hospital, but his salary was
increased. This would have been well if he had not been
useless, but though his duties were confined to the steward-
ship or household management, he was unable to perform
them ; for when, two years after, Mr. Hart became registrar
and agent, he was obliged to take Beasley's work in addition
to his own, gratuitously, with the assistance of the butler,
still leaving Beasley his salary and maintenance and rooms.
Meanwhile the Board voted him an increase, first of £15, and
then £25 a year. This abuse is severely exposed by the
Educational Commissioners in 1808 ; they condemn the
appointment of a governor as an official, and further find
that when Mr. Beasley at length formally resigned, he was still
retained in his apartments, with his full salary- of £135 as
pension. This final job is not noticed in our ^linute book ;
perhaps the governors were ashamed of it.
Then John Wilson, who had been registrar and agent
since 1779, died in 1794. His position in the city as once a
sheriff's peer and town surveyor, and his succession to Ivory,
as architect of the Hospital, gave him an authority v\'ith the
Board, of which he was himself a member. Som.e /6,ooo of
228 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
the new building cost were expended under him, and withal
he undertook the duty of lecturing the Board in this period
of depression. They probably deserved his strictures, for
the letter which he had printed and circulated, was itself an
act of insubordination, which governors, if efficient, should
never have tolerated, or placed, as they did, in their archives.
But we give it here in full, not merely as an internal evidence
of the low estate of the Hospital at this time, but for the irony
which this gentleman's own sequel imparts to it.
To the Goveiniors of tJic Blue- Coat Hofpital.
My Lords and Gentlemen,
Bound ?.s I am by the ties of duty, and Affection for the Welfare
of this Hofpital, I cannot but lament the Decreafe of Benefactions
and Legacies to the Charity ; I have been told, to my great
Mortification, that, different Charitable Perfons, who had
bequeathed Sums of Money, have of late altered their Wills,
and given the Preference to other Charities, thinking ours
undeferving.
Reflection ftaggcied me ; I blufhed, confcious of the Public's
difcerning eye ! T looked into myfeli, and inftantly, every other
Perfon concerned in the Government of this Charity came into
my View. 1 could not (even with a Partiality in their favom),
pronounce their acquittal ; nor fhall I condemn any one^ but fhall
remind the Governors, that better and wifer Rules and Orders
were never framed, than were fupported in this Hofpital for
many years ; if they had been adhered to to this Day, I fhould not
have this unpleafant Story to relate.
We had nearly f truck on this Rock , but I hope a revival of
our good old Laws, will recover the Veffel and bring her fafe into
Port again. I have often admired and read over and over again
the old Books, and as often regretted our departing from the
strict Obferv^ance of the Laws that made us admired, and under
which we profpered.
I have not the leaft enmity to Mortal, nor do I wifh for
Innovation, but that every Perfon in Office fhould keep his own
particular Station ; becaufe, I am fully convinced he will find
enough to do in his own Department.
I am encouraged to thefe few Remarks, by the gleam of
favourable Attention fhewn last Affembly, to the Hofpital ; and
I harbour the ftrongest hopes, that the Gentlemen have giv^en an
earneft, that they mean to be the Protectors of fo great and fo
laudable a Charity.
It is hoped the Governors \\'ill accept of this as it is meant —
TEMP. GEORGE III., 1784-1800 229
merely to do good. Tt is the overflcwing of a Heart that can have
no other meaning,- -but to act the part Piovidence has affigned
to him, who is, and always was, my Lords and Gentlemen,
Your faithful humble Servant,
JOHN WILSON,
B.C.H.
April 4th, 1792.
When, two years after, the writer died, his own accounts
showed no less than £1,300 due to the Hospital which were
lost for ever, for when the governors appealed to his sureties,
and proceeded to put their bonds in suit, the demand was
boldly repudiated. The governors were dared to go to trial,
and on the advice of eminent counsel abandoned the claim.
Their own remissness in allowing their officer to do as he
pleased, would probably have proved an unanswerable plea
on the equitable principles of suretj^ship.
There is an entry of Wilson's in his own hand, as registrar,
which gives another touch of his quality : " August, 1791.
The assistant housekeeper was admonished for not treating
Mr. Wilson with the respect due to him as a governor and
agent, by telling him she did not care a pin for him." He
was succeeded in 1794 by Mr. Robert Hart, who held office
for thirty-five years, and of whom we shall have more to
say.
Yet Wilson had been elected at a great meeting in 1779
by fifty-one governors, including twenty-one aldermen, with
the Earl of Roden, Sir Lucius O'Brien, and Provost John
Hely Hutchinson, none of whom ever attended before or
after. He then succeeded Thos. Hawkshaw, whose accounts
had been found by Wilson also defective to the amount of
£800 : he followed the precedent effectively.
[Chairmen and Lord Mayors.
230 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Our Chairmen and Lord Mayors from First George III.
to the Union were : —
Sir Patrick Hamilton.
Sir Timothy Allen.
Charles Russell.
William Forbes.
Benjamin Geale.
Sir James Taylor.
Edward Sankey.
Francis Fetherston.
Beniamin Barton.
Sir Thomas Blackhall.
George Reynolds.
F. Booker, VV. Forbes.
Richard French.
Willoughby Lightburne.
Henry Hart.
Thomas Emerson.
Henry Beadan.
William Dunne.
Sir Anthony King.
James Hamilton.
760-
61
61-
2
62-
'7
63-
4
64-
5
65-
6
66-
7
67-
8
68-
9
69-
70
70-
I
71-
2
7^-
3
73-
4
74-
5
75-
6
76-
7
77-
8
78-
9
79-!
3o
1780-]
[781
Kilner Swettenham.
81-
2
John Darragh.
82-
3
Nathaniel Warren.
83-
4
Thomas Green.
84-
5
James Horan.
85-
6
James Shiel.
86-
7
George Alcock.
87-
8
William Alexander.
88-
9
John Rose.
89-
90
John Exshaw.
90-
I
Henry Howison.
91-
2
Henry S. Sankey.
92-
3
John Carleton.
93-
4
William James.
94-
5
Richard Moncrieff.
95-
6
Sir Wm. Worthington.
96
7
Samuel Reed.
97-
8
Thomas Fleming.
98-
9
Thomas Andrews.
99-1
800
J. Sutton & J. Exshaw.
[ 231 ]
CHAPTER XII.
THE EVOLUTION OF DUBLIN IN THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
The decline of King's Hospital as the exclusive favourite it
had been in its first hundred years was doubtless due to the
growth of the city through the eighteenth century, in the
last three-quarters of which the erection of great public
buildings and stately mansions was phenomenal. Side by
side with these the city was expanding into new quarters,
streets, squares, always creating new interests in which the
Blue Coat governors as the municipal authority were deeply
concerned, both as public and as private persons ; and, as
each advance suggested another, grants from Parliament
and the city estate were constantly sought at the expense of
the monopoly which the Blue Coat had once almost enjoyed.
The development may be seen in a general way by com-
paring Brooking's Map, 1728, when it began, with Roque's,
1765, when it was in full operation ; good copies of these
appear in the seventh and eleventh volumes of Gilbert's
Calendar. But to conceive this evolution duly, one must follow
each great step in the order of dates, thus seeing to what
each led on ; and as such a review has not, perhaps, hitherto
been made in any of the Dublin histories, it is attempted
here, so that we may thus compare the city at the time of
the Union with the Dublin of the Restoration, as sketched
above in Chapter I.
We begin with the noble library of Trinity College, which,
though commenced when Anne was Queen, was only
completed in 1732. This changed the whole aspect of the
quarter ; facing Nassau Street, still called by Brooking
232 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
St. Patrick's Well Lane, where all to the west of unfinished
Dawson vStreet were still the Minchen Fields ; it may be styled
the Renaissance in Dublin, for few Renaissance works
surpass it anywhere. Its forgotten designer was found by
Dr. Stubbs to be Mr. De Burgh, of Old Court, Kildare.i It
gave the keynote to all that followed. Next comes the
Parliament Palaces ; begun in 1729, when Lord Carteret
probably laid the fiist stone, it received the Houses in 173 1,
but was only completed eight years after, still, leaving both
the wings for another generation. The original conception
has been credited by many as due to Cassels, but the
practical architects were, undubitably. first Sir E. Lovett
Pearce, and then Arthur Dobbs. This great work,
of course, revolutionized old College Green. Then,
in 1741, rose Tyrone House, the mansion ol the
Beresfords, built for the first Earl of Tyrone on the
space behind Marlborough Street, then known as Marl-
borough Green, where the eastward city had ended, save for
a group of houses on the strand at ^Mabbot's Corner. This
led to the making of streets adjacent. Tyrone, Mecklen-
burgh, Cumberland Streets were built in the great era of
George II., though modern decadence has fallen on these,
scarce arrested by the conversion of the mansion into the
Schools of the Commissioners of National Education. Tlie
designer was probably Cassels, for he was the architect of
Leinster House, which was finished in 1745 for James, the
twentieth Eail of Kildare, just then created Viscount
Leinster in England, and some years after Duke, and
Marquess of Kildare. In the same year, 1745, Trinity
College, whose library had probably led to the selection of
the site of Leinster House, erected the present Dining Hall ;
whilst round Leinster House began to rise Leinster Street,
Kildare Street, Molesworth Street, though Merrion Square
behind was still open and swampy. These extensions gave
an impulse to building round St. Stephen's Green, where few
good houses had hitherto existed. Van Nost's statue of
George II. was erected in the centre in 1759. In the north,
^Stubbs, Trinity College, p. 176.
DUBLIN IX THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 233
Dublin ended at Great Britani Street in the middle of the
century, but, in 1751, Dr. Bartholomew Mosse obtained for
the Corporation the site of his Lying-in Hospital, which he
transferred from South George's Street, and this induced
very striking sequels. It was finished, with its beautiful
Rotunda, in 1757. Cassels was the architect. Behind lay
the gardens, and beyond open fields to Phibsborough village,
with the Barley fields, on the space now filled by Frederick
Street, Hardwicke Street, and Gardiner's Row. The new
gardens, as they were called, were enclosed by stone walls,
and it was only in 1784, when the Duke of Rutland visited the
Hospital, that these were taken down and replaced by
railings and the place named Rutland Square, with Granby
Row to the west in honour of the Lord Lieutenant. But
the Hospital fronted to Drogheda Street, running then as
far as the Abbey Streets, where it was stopped by the back
houses of the Bachelor's Walk, which then extended far down
the present Eden Quay. But when Lionel, Duke of Dorsetr
was secondly Lord Lieutenant, 1750-1753, the northern end
facing the Rotunda, as far as Henry and Earl Streets, known
as the j\Iall, was widened out and planted at the sides, and
was now named Sackville Street in honour of the Viceroy, as
the road from Bolton Street northward was named Dorset
Street ; the residue from the site of Nelson's Pillar to Abbey
Street was still Drogheda Street. All this led to the forming
of St. Thomas' Parish, including the new district of Tyrone
House and St. Thomas' Church, with its handsome Greek
front by Ivory in the centre.
Next year, 1759, Trinity College, inspired no doubt by the
grand vicinity of the Houses of Parliament, erected the
present fine front facing College Green, and at the same time
the Provost's House close by. The designer of this was the
Earl of Burlington and Ross, who adapted it from the
mansion in Piccadilly, then built for General Wade. It is in
all respects worthy of its position as the home of the
Presidents of the University, who in brilliant succession have
owned it, having as a private residence few ri\'als anywhere.
But a new and potent impulse to the development was given
234 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
by the Wide Streets Commissioners, whose functions under
repeated statutes continued well into the nineteenth century.
Their first Act was passed in 1757 to improve the connection
of north and south by a straight street from Essex Bridge to
the Castle. For, at foot of Cork Hill, on the site of Old Dame
Gate, two carriages could not drive abreast. In widening
Dame Street here, the Commissioners, unfortunatel}^ were
content to give it the breadth as it now appears from Cork
Hill to the Lower Castle Yard. They found their mistake
when, in 1780, they were empowered to enlarge Dame Street
from thence to College Green. Essex Bridge had been
rebuilt at a great cost in 1753, but at the southern end a
narrow causeway only reached to Essex Street, and the
entrances to the old Custom House there, meeting
a network of ancient lanes and houses by Isoult
Tower, blocking the access to Cork Hill. The titles
and tenures of these were ancient and complex,
and it was not till 1769 that Parliament Street was fully
opened. This at once led on to the conception of the Royal
Exchange, promoted by the merchants to thwart the
exactions of unfair tonnage tolls imposed on the up-river
craft. Thomas Cooley was the architect of this splendid
building, now the City Hall, but the city, as already
mentioned, owes it to Charles Lucas, who forced it through
Parliament when he was city member, obtaining a grant of
£13,000 ; and his fine statue by Edward Smyth is still
justly a chief ornament in the great central hall, standing
not far from that of his friend George HI. by Van Nost.
The first stone of the Exchange was laid by Lord
Townshend, when Lord Lieutenant, in 1769 ; it
was finished in 1779, and it ought to stand for
ever, for it is founded upon the rock which stretches thence
and under the Liffe}^ long known as Stand Fast Dick. And
now Parliament Street and the Exchange at the one end,
with the Parliament Houses and the new College front at
the other, necessitated the widening throughout of Dame
Street.
- .4 ;;/£■ Chapter IX.
DUBLIN IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 235
This was commenced in 1780, and went on for nearly
twenty years. The Rotunda Gardens were now being girdled
with costly mansions. In the sixties Lord Charlemont
erected that fiom which the north side of the squaie was
called Palace Row. He was himself a great connoisseur, and
is said to have designed this mansion himself ; but we know
about the same time he was engaged in beautifying his
country house at Clontarf. For the Casino in the grounds
his architect was the famous Sir Richard Chambers, the
designer of Somerset House on the Thames, who had been
his intimate friend and correspondent for many years,^
consulting him on all his elaborate ornamentations, and to
whom we may attribute much at least of Charlemont House.
No expense was spared upon it, and it was marked first
amongst the noble houses of the city. Nearly at the same
time Powerscourt House was built, 1771-74, for Richard
Wingiield, third Viscount Powerscourt ; its architect was
Robert Mack, and it was once accounted third in beauty of
these homes. For many late years it has been occupied by
the mercantile house of Messrs. Ferrier and Pollock.
Next comes the Hibernian Marine School, far to the south-
east, at the further end of Sir John Rogerson's Quay, which
was opened in 1773, under very high auspices, for
the training of the children of seamen of the navy
and the merchant service. It had large grants
from Parliament, the edifice costing /6,6oo, and
was a formidable rival to the Blue Coat Hospital,
as the navigation school there gave one of its chief claims to
the favour of the mercantile classes. Our Thomas Ivory was
architect. But it was built far to the east to connect it with
the deep seaport then still at Ringsend, and thus could not
take class as a city ornament. It has long been occupied by
the timber stores of Sir Richard Martin & Company.
Immediately after Ivory was engaged upon our new Blue
Coat Hospital, which took ten years to complete, 1773-83,
as detailed above in Chapter X.
In 1777 Trinity College began their great Theatre or
•' See C/iarlemont Papers, Historical Manuscripts.
236 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Examination Hall between the library and their west
quadrangle, known as Parliament Square. It was built by
a Mr. Meyers, who Dr. Stubbs probably thought was the
designer, for he does not name the architect ; but. in 1779,
Sir Richard Chambers ■* writes Lord Charlemont that, two
years before, he was requested to make designs for con-
siderable additions to the buildings in Trinity College, but
that the vast work with which he was engaged on Somerset
House, which, he says, was then on the anvil, prevented his
coming over to Ireland to complete them ; and he was thus
only able to give a general disposition of what he intended,
from which, however, he adds, " the buildings are now being
executed," and he may therefore claim the chief share of any
merit there may be in the general mtention. There is very
high merit in the general design, and Sir Richard's claim
should be the more gratefully recognised because the facade
of the College chapel, erected some years after at the opposite
side of the quadrangle, is a replica of the theatre front.
Leinster House naturally led to the enclosure of Merrion
Square. The fine mansions around were begun in 1780 by
our benefactor William Robert, the second Duke, and
occupied some twenty-two years in building. The need for
these, both here and in Rutland Square and St. Stephen's
Green, was vastly enhanced by the reconstitution of
Parliament in 1782, and artists from England and the
Continent came to co-operate with our native talent, which
was then rich. The graceful work of Angelica Kaufman and
of several Italians is still beautiful on the ceilings and walls
of many of the houses of our gentry, and even of some that
have since degenerated into tenements, as in Henrietta
Street. Meanwhile Essex Bridge had remained, as it had
been for more than a hundred years, the only link between
north and south to seaward. But the spread of the city
on both sides eastward now made a new connexion inevitable.
The restoration of Essex Bridge in 1752 was followed by
projects in Parliament in that and the next year for a new
bridge and a new Custom House. Thereupon the old conflict
"■ Charlemont Papers, Historical Manuscripts, p. 349, 20th May, 1779.
DUBLIN IX THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 237
with vested interests, the foes of reform, which had raged
round Essex Bridge itself in 1676, was now renewed ; the
city was in arms ; both Houses in the City Assembly called
on Parliament to reject the proposal as disastrous. We ma}'
smile at this opposition now ; but, when we remember the
vast interests of mercantile and even of working men that
had gathered round the old Custom House, and see m the old
pictures the vessels that thronged the river up to the bridge,
and recall how even the new expansions had increased the
value of the old Ferry franchises, we can see how revo-
lutionary the project was, and feel no surprise that the bills
then fell through.
But in 1760 Aston's Quay was restored. The city lease
of the Restoration times to Lord Anglesea. of the slobs then
fronting Fleet Street, had been assigned to Major Henrj^
Aston generations before ; he had reclaimed them, and
formed a rough quay with poor buildings behind that had
fallen to ruin, and the city this year renewed the grant to his
grandson on the terms of his rebuilding and restoring the
quay. Encouraged by this, the project for the new bridge
close by came again before Parliament, but, vehemently
opposed by the city, was again thrown out. The need,
notwithstanding, grew yeaily more imperative ; docks had
been constructed far down the river by the Harbour Board,
the space at the old Custom House was now quite inadequate,
and at last, in 1780, the first stone of the nev/ Custom House,
which is the glor}' of Dublin, was laid. This masterpiece of
James Gandon's took many years to complete, but the
foundation ston e had sealed the fate of opposition to the bridge ;
for, though this was only linished in 1794, it then took the
name of the Earl of Carlisle, Lord Lieutenant 1780-82. It
was to change our centre of gravity for ever.
The very prospect of it imparted new impetus. In 179 1
£100,000 was assigned by statute to the Wide Street
Commissioners. A fourth of this was devoted towards
forming the pride of our causeways by erasing the east of
Bachelor's Walk and Drogheda Street to Henry Street, so
that Sackville Street should open as now from the river to the
238 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Rotunda ; £25,000 was allocated to connect this line by
Cavendish Row with the Great Northern Road, which the
Act recites had been then completed by broadening Dorset
vStreet towards Drumcondra. Then Frederick Street was
cut through the Barley Fields, purchased for the purpose
fiom Lord Mountjoy, whose estate thus began to form an
important part of the city— Gardiner's Row leading to the
line of the Gardiner Streets ; and so a new parish became
essential. In 1796 St. George's Parish was created by
statute, within limits which even then comprised parts of the
ancient St. Michan's, which had reached from the Park to
the sea. Lord Mountjoy gave the site for the church and
church\^ard, which originally occupied the slope over Great
Britain Street, but Mountjoy Square, designed just as the
new century began, when finished, with its offshoot streets,
compelled the transfer of the parish church to its present
site in Temple Street. With the balance of the £100,000,
under the Act of 1791, the Commissioners are directed to
complete Dame Street. The xAct recites that the Com-
missioners had already taken down and rebuilt the southern
side of new Dame Street, from the Lower Castle Yard to
Trinity Street, and that they were then about to take down
and rebuild the north side from Anglesea to Eustace Streets ;
and then provides that all future houses from Trinity Street
to Church Lane, and from Eustace to Parliament Streets,
sliall be built by their owners to range in uniformi style with
the rest, to form a grand passage fiom His Majesty's Castle
to the Parliament House and College Green. To connect
these with the new bridge was now essential, and Westmore-
land Street, so called from the Viceroy of 1790-95, was now
laid out. The beautiful eastern wing of the Parliament
House had lately been completed by Gandon; and, before the
centurv ended, the continuous line was now compleie, south
to north, from St. Stephen's Green to the Great Northern
Road.
In all this while the Law Courts in Christ Church Place had
become wholly inadequate, both in site and size, but their
replacement needed many years, and it was only in 1796 tbe
DUBLIN IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 239
new Courts were opened on Inns Quay. The original
splendid design was by Cooley, who, beginning so far back
as 1776, only lived to complete the western wing, and the
great work passed into the hands of James Gandon. The
new Recorder's Court, transferred from the Tholsel, was
opened in 1797.
So stood the evolution of our capital at the time of the
Union. It had to force its way not only through financial
difficulties and structural obstructions, but in the face of
keen oppositions at many stages.'' Even Parliament Street
was fiercely resented ; and, when the Commissioners, having
purchased the houses, proceeded to remove them, the
inhabitants refused to stir, and were only expelled when in
a single night the roofs were removed, and the terrified
inmates rushed elsewhere. But Dublin had now won a place
amongst the beautiful cities of Europe, though
Tantae molis erat Dublinam condere gentcm.
6 Whitelaw's Vol. II., p. 1078.
240 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
CHAPTER XIII.
TEMP. GEORGE III. 1 800.1820.
It might have been hoped that the Act of Union would have
restored to the Blue Coat its relative status in the city at
least, and attracted to the Board, as of old, many of the best
men in the country, but this was not so, for a time at least.
When the new century opened the number in the school
was no, but now, once more our story reflected the current
of public events, and darkened for a while. For the Corpora-
tion, alarmed at the loss to the city sure to follow the cessation
of Parliament, and the flight of notables to London, began
to shrink from maintaining their usual subsidies to the City
School. In sending at the end of 1801 the Toll Corn annuity
of £2^0, regularly paid for eighty years, they voted it
expressly for a single year only, and, with deep regret, the
Governors resolved to limit the number to 100. Richard
Manders, grandsire of the family so long afterwards esteemed
members of Dublin society, was then our Chairman and
Lord Ma3^or ; with him sat the Archbishop of Dublin, Lord
Somerton, he was the Hon. Charles Agar, grandson of our
old friend, Welbore Ellis, Bishop of Meath, whose daughter
had married the first Lord Clifden ; he was raised, in 1806,
to the Earldom of Normanton, and is another of our many
governors who have recruited the House of Lords. Manders
did his best to stem the decline. In 1802 an appeal to the
Board of Erasmus Smuth was met by a gift of £1,000, and
the Right Hon. David Latouche, ancestor of the families of
Marlay and Belleview, joined our Board. A strong
Committee was directed to collect subscriptions, and two
proposals were made to elect the city members ex-officio
TEMP. GEORGE III., 1800-1820 241
gov'ernors, and that all future governors should pay £300
on his appointment ; both projects proved abortive, for the
members were off to London, and the number of those able
and willing to pay so much for such an honour, were
shrivelling too.
Next year, when Jacob Poole was Loid Mayor and
Chairman, the Corporation were again petitioned to require
all High Sheriffs on appointment to contribute a fixed fine
m support of the School, and though this was favourably
answered, it brought no immediate revenue. So, again, in
1805, the governors felt bound to reduce the number to 100
boys as vacancies arose, but they forwarded at the same
time a petition to the Imperial Parliament, urging " the
great advantage that must result to the State from educating
a number of youths in the pure and loyal principles of the
Protestant religion, thereby attaching them, by every
prmciple of gratitude, to the city and to the Government."
This they sent to the Right Hon. John Foster, " that friend
of the city, the Chancellor of the Exchequer," asking his
advice as to the best manner of presenting the petition.
Foster replies in his courteous style from London in June,
most willing to help, but advising that the session is now
too far advanced for money applications, and that the
recommendation of the Lord Lieutenant would be essential.
We now know how the then Lord Lieutenant, Lord Hardwick,
was bowed down by the draughts, many blameless, some
baseless, some base, made on the Government in connection
with the passing of the Act of Union, and how little hope
there was of his recommending money for a simple charity.
We had this year on our Board the Archbishop of Cashel,
the Hon. Charles Brodrick, a great grandson of our friend,
Queen Anne's Chancellor, first Lord Middleton, and direct
ancestor of the late distinguished Secretary for Wai. The
Archbishop was an active governor, and proved very useful
shortly after, when our estate of Nodstown, which was in the
vicinity of his palace at Cashel, became a subject of anxious
care.
A short entry in 1805 gives another slight echo of the
R
242 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
histor}' of the time ; it is that of the admission of Charles
Vaughan, son of Charles, " elected by the Board at large
in consideration of his father having been murdered in the
rebellion (Robert Emmet's in 1803), and the inability of his
mother to support him."
In 1807 three events happened of moment to us : —
(i). The Napoleon wars, now at their height, had immensely
stimulated the growing of home wheat, and the value of land
went up by bounds. Our Tipperary estate of Nodstown
had been let in 1785, at a rent of iS'^Jy foi" a- term of twenty-
one years now expiring", and the advertisements of the
governors for new lettings were met by no less than fifteen
tenders, offering from £2 to £2 los. per acre. New surveys
were ordered, which disclosed that many acres had been
filched by encroachments, but more than 600 good arable
acres remained ; and, in 1810, a new lease was executed to
Francis O'Kearney at £1,459 a year, or a net increase of
£930 on the old rental. This should have set us up, so long, at
least, as war rents lasted ; but, on hearing of the tenders, the
City Assembly, by a majority, resolved to withdraw their
casual contributions : the Toll Corn annuity of £250, the
sheriffs' and other fines, averaging in all more than £800 a
year, and thus almost to neutralize the Nodstown
increment. (2j. But at this time the Educational
Commission, under the Act of 1806, was sitting
in Dublin ; they had extensive powers, not only
of enquir}^, but of making recommendations to the
Lord Lieutenant. Their report on our Hospital, already
mentioned, contains a very able and exhaustive survey of
its history for the twelve years to the end of 1808. The
commissioners highly commend the School and its public
utility; they find the average income in the twelve years
to have been upwards of £3,000 yearly, and suggest that the
withdrawal of the Corporation grants must seriously affect
the number of pupils maintained, even in view of the
prospective increment from Nodstown, the number then
having, as presently explained, again risen to 130. They
acknowledge the artistic beaut}^ of the building, but deplore
TEMP. GEORGE III., 180C-1820 243
the ambition of the plans, by which, after an expenditure
of /2i,ooo, the Hospital was not only left incomplete, but
with a debt of £4,000, loading the revenue with iTy^o a year,
which they strongly recommend should be paid off with all
speed, as the dormitories, though designed for 300 boys, now
scarce sufficed for 120. The report has minute tables of the
sources of revenue, and of the dietary then in use. This to
us very serviceable report is signed by six commissioners,
the Primate, Dr. William Newcomen, Provost Hall, of
Dublin University, Dean Verschoyle of St. Patrick's, Rev.
James Whitelaw, the very worthy historian of Dublin,
William Disney, and Richard Lovell Edgeworth, the eminent
father of a more eminent daughter. He was a great practical
educationist, and one of the most accomplished Irish
gentlemen of his time.
In commenting on the Beasley case, the Commissioners
commend the governors for consolidating again the offices
of steward and registrar, on Beasley's resignation, in Mr.
Robert Hart. Whitelaw, in his History of Dublin,^ says of
Hart : " that from the period of Mr. Beasley's superannuation
to his death, he had performed the important duties of
steward gratuitously, and with that integrity, ability, and
solicitude for the interest of the institution with which he
has uniformly discharged every trust reposed in him by the
governors," and he congratulates him " on the increase of
his salary, on the union of offices, to ;£250." This eulogy was
well deserved at the time, and for some years after. Yet, it
was, perhaps, unfortunate, as it may have induced the
governors to leave Mr. Hart, as they did, an almost uncon-
trolled management of all the business affairs of the Hospital,
and now offers a painful contrast to the serious reflections
upon that management in later years, made in the reports
of the Education Commissioners of 1858.
Whitelaw attributes the abuses, which had been permitted,
to what he calls the never failing consequences of govern-
ment by great numbers of unaccountable governors. There
were then seventy-iive governors in all, and, no doubt, there
' Vol. I.. 575-
244 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
IS a tendenc}^ when a Board is large, to leave to officials routine
administration, on which, however, results chiefly depend,
and themselves to attend only in full array when an
appointment is to be made. This, our annals prove, thev
alwa^'s did ; the system leads to canvassing, and the choice
of officials by favour. All through we find a not very
edifying relationship of the person selected, to some
influential member of the Board, not always those most
zealous for the welfare of the institutions. But on the whole
Whitelaw's judgment on our governors is favourable. The
interior economy, he says, is excellent ; the officers discharge
their duties from the purest motives, and the general conduct
of the boys is good, and he concludes with the anxious wish
that funds should be found, not only to restore the former
numbers, but to enlarge them so far as the plan of the
buildings will admiit. (3). And in 1807 the Board had an
accession, the most effective and beneficent since that of
y\rchbishop King. Lord Chief Justice Downes had succeeded
to the King's Bench, on tlie murder, in Thomas Street, of
Lord Kilwarden in Emmiet's rebellion. He was now, like
Dr. King, treasurer of the Erasmus Smith Board, and
followed his steps in the wise policy of making the cognate
charities work in unison. In February, 1807, he personally
informed our governors that, as treasurer of the Erasmus
Smith Board, he was entitled, as a personal perquisite, to a
poundage of one fortieth on its revenues, which he now
contemplated applying to the support of such additional
pupils in the Hospital as this would meet, these to be
nominated as the Erasmus Smith Board should appoint.
The governors thereon sent a Committee to wait on the
Chief Justice, gratefully accepting his public-spirited proposal,
and adding the single condition that the boys on this new
foundation should be ''the offspring of Protestants."
In April the Chief Justice sent a final resolution to the
effect that his poundage fees would then support seven new
boys, and afford a reserve for their apprenticeships, in
addition to the twent}^ already on the Erasmus Smith
foundation, under Archbishop King's statute of George I.,
TEMP. GEORGE III., 1800-1820 245
and he further proposed to add ten new boys on that
foundation, making thirty-seven in all, the sons of Protestants,
all to be maintained in like manner as the rest of the pupils.
They stipulated only that all the new nominations should
be made by the treasurer for the time being " until further
order," and that all their own future treasurers should be
chosen, subject to this application of the poundage fees,
this order to be read at all future elections to that office.
This treaty, of course, was gratefully ratified, and seventeen
boys were forthwith added to our rolls.
Thus encouraged, the governors suspended the order to
reduce, wliich had not yet taken effect, and so the number
stood, m 1808, at 130. Under these influences the Corpora-
tion suspended their withdrawal of the casual grants, and
made 130 the nominal limit.
But the Chief Justice did not stop here. In the end of
1808 he told our governors that on personally visiting the
Hospital he saw many things in many places wliich needed
amendment, and obtained a Committee of Inspection, he
himself being first on the list, the Lord Mayor, Frederick
Darley, being chairman. Their visits revealed the many
bald defects, for the building, as we know, had never been
finished, and premature decay had already set in. The
pillarr, half erected, meant to sustain Ivory's great steeple
or cupola, stood gaunt against the sky as if they had been
shattered in a hurricane. Many of the necessary rere offices
had never been even begun, and most of them were
incomplete, so the whole matter was committed tor report
to Mr. Francis Johnston, the architect of the Board of
Works, and the most eminent Irish Architect of his day.
His duty was prolonged, for he was to estimate the cost of
everything necessary to put the whole building and offices
in thorough repair, " and fit and commodious for the
purposes for which they were designed," and it was not till
March, 1810, that the Chief Justice was enabled to lay
before the governors the resolution of his own Board, based
on Mr. Johnston's estimates. It was found that the
completion of the cupola would alone cost £4,000, and that
246 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
other subjects of the original plans, now recommended by
Johnston, were beyond any presently procurable means,
but that the actually necessary works could be effected for
about £3, 000. These comprised the reparation of the chapel,
the adaptation of the chaplain's room into a dormitory for
forty bo3^s, a laundry, and sanitary arrangements not
usually thought of so early in the century, for these included
a great arched sewer to the Liffey, and ventilation in all the
dormitory windows, the enclosure of the Hospital front
within railings as they now exist, and the taking down of the
cupola shafts, and removal of the turrets on the wings, which
Johnston reported even then were tottering. This £3,000
the Chief Justice, as treasurer, now offered on behalf of his
Board, on the sole condition that it should be spent by a
Committee of our governors, and confined to the above
utilitarian objects. This committee he nominated himself.
There were the Lord 'Ma.yoT,ex-officio,the Lord Chief Justice,
the Dean of St. Patrick's, Dr. Verschoyle, Dr. Hall, Provost
of Trinity College, Right Hon. Sackville Hamilton, Mr.
Walker, the Recorder, and the Hon. John Pomeroy. This
most handsome offer was accepted by our governors with
effusive gratitude, and ratified in the Spring of 1810, Sir
Wm. Stamer, Bart., being then Lord Mayor and Chairman.
All these improvements were carried out, save that the poor
cupola, ruled out of court as non-essential, was not taken
down, nor were the turrets ; their completion had been
anxiously considered in three successive years since the
beginning of the century, but always deferred for want of
means, and even now the hope survived that some benefactor
might still arise ; and so the stark shafts were left to stand
up against the the sky in Palmyrean desolation, chronic
ruins, which, though pronounced by Johnston to be even
then in danger of falling, lived through the storms of 1839
and 1903, till replaced by the new cupola inaugurated by
Lord Dudley in June, 1904. But though Ivory's great steeple
never pierced the sky, it has affected architectural Dublin,
for when Francis Johnston, a few j^ears after, was building St.
George's church, he modelled his handsome spire on this ideal.
TEMP. GEORGE ITL, 1800-1820 247
In the two following years the energ}' of the Chief Justice
was felt everywhere. The Beasleys, husband and wife, were
dispossessed and pensioned off, and Mr. Dalton, the second
schoolmaster, given their rooms, with a large increase of
his salary, to £200 a year, in view of the increased number
of the boys, but on the terms of the entire devotion of his
time, and of his giving up private tuitions. Mr. Hart had
justice done him in regard of his having discharged Beasley's
duties gratis for several years, and of his now permanently
taking the double duty. All the rooms were overhauled, a
drying yard added behind the infirmary, and the master's
garden, as existing now ; the dormitories were refurnished
with proper bedsteads, and arrangements made for sending
invalid boys to country or seaside ; the handsome Board
room was re-decorated and carpeted. Fifteen and then
twenty guineas a year were voted for premiums and
medals to deserving pupils, these to be conferred by the
governors in person, and nearly all these things are noticed
as done at the instance of the Chief Justice, whom we find
usualh' accompanied by Baron George. In 181 1 he added
thirteen more boys, thus raising those on the Erasmus Smith
foundation to a total of fifty, and under this impulse the
governors added seven on that of the city. Our chairmen
in these years, 18 11 and 1812, were Nathaniel Hone and
W. H. Archer, who worthily supported the Lord Chief Justice.
In 1809, Dr. Bryan, who had been our physician for fifteen
years, resigned, and Dr. Lestrange replaced him, and
on his resignation in 181 1, Dr. William Harty, an
admirable appointment, undertook the duty.
Heie sounds another echo from the great world outside.
In 18 1 2 Great Britain had, with the Peninsular war, a war
with America on her hands. The recruiting sergeant was
everywhere, and found access to our boys, of whom
he captured several. The governors met in wrath
in October, the new Lord Mayor, Bradley King,
in the chair, and resolved that recruiting parties
had no right to enlist their boys, and would
never be permitted to do so on any account. They
248 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
demanded back those who had joined the ranks, directing
the registrar to pay the expenses incurred, and posted
notices that any boys enhsting would be expelled in " the
most public and ignominious manner," and that none
should leave the Hospital save by written permits. And
yet some of them might have fared as well in the army as
at the trades to which most of them were destined, for the
weakness of our School for nearly two hundred years was
in the rule which admitted children of eight and nine years,
and compelled them inexorably to leave at the end of five
years.
Our prestige however had now been restored. In 181
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Foster, became a
governor. But in 1813 our Board achieved what we may
call its Blue Ribbon in the accession of Charles Lennox,
K.G., fourth Duke of Richmond, who came here in 1807 as
Lord Lieutenant, with Sir Arthur Wellesley as his Chief
Secretary. He came with a nmndane aureole about him
from two famous duels, which were once the topic of the
London world. When a young Colonel in the Coldstreams,
in 1789, the gossip of the Daubigne Military Club rumoured
that he had not acted with sufficient spirit when affronted
by somebody. Lennox demanded explanations as to the
when, where, and who, of this calumny, and receiving no
reply, wrote to Frederick, Duke of York, Commander in
Chief, and head of the Club, with the alternative of a
challenge in case redress was declined. Frederick was the
King's favourite son, but waiving his right as Prince of the
Blood, and his quasi ecclesiastical dignity of Bishop of
Osnaburgh, he accepted the challenge. He was then living
with his brother George, Prince of Wales, who suspected what
was afoot; but Frederick, leaving his own hat in the hall to
avert suspicion, and taking that of one of the household,
met Lennox on Wimbledon Common. When the signal was
given, Frederick fired in the air, but Lennox shot point blank,
and his ball grazed the Prince's ear^ singed the love lock
over it, and stirred his hat.- The shot would have surely
-Dublin Chronicle, C'th May, 18S9.
TEMP. GEORGE III., 1800-1820 249
been fatal, but that immediately before it was fired, and
when the Prince was facing the foe, front to front, his second
had peremptorily ordered him to stand sideways. Lennox
called out to the Prince, " Your Highness has not fired."
" I only came here," was the reply, " to give you satisfaction,
and if you are not satisfied you can fire again." On Lennox
then demanding a withdrawal of the charge of want of
gallantry, Frederick said, " Yes, you have behaved well,
better than on the occasion which led to this." The verdict,
military and social, in London, was, that Lenno.x had acted
with courage, but not with judgment, and all applauded the
calm valour of the Prince. But it didn't end here ; for
amongst the public comments was a letter of Theophilus
Swift, son of Deane Swift, the great Dean's cousin, which,
m eulogizing Frederick, said that Lennox had acted in a
cowardly way, and, challenged accordingly, they met in a
field by the Uxbridge Road in July.-^ Lennox had chosen
pistols, they stood ten paces apart, and Lennox being
allotted to fire first, the ball smote Swift in the abdomen
and sent him sprawling just as his hand was on the trigger
of his own pistol, which went off in vain ; the ball was easily
extracted. The name of Swift brought the event nearer to
Dublin, where the newspaper's judgment was that the
relative "of our immortal Dean " was known for his great
eccentricities. But, if a swashbuckler, Lennox was the best
of good fellows. When commanding the 35th foot, he played
cricket with the rank and file, and made his officers do
likewise, a rare mark of condescension then, and the echoes
of his social revelries whilst here are still awake in Dublin.
In 18 13 our governors had resolved to dine together in the
Board room on the King's birthday, and the Lord Mayor,
Bradley King, of his own impulse, invited the Duke to honour
them with his presence. He accepted at once. We have no
record of the banquet, but they seem to have had a good
night of it, for the governors afterwards specially thanked
the Lord Mayor for inviting his Grace, and followed this
up by a deputation, asking the Duke to become a governor
•^ Dublin Chronicle 47, July 1889, in p. 229, 245.
250 FOUNDATION OF THE KINGS HOSPITAL
for life, which his Grace also graciously consented to do,
with an expression of his wish to render any service in his
power to the institution ; and he showed his goodwill by
promising to provide a place for a boy named Robert Ellward
in one of the public offices, when informed by the governors
that he was fitted to hold it.^ But, though elected for life, the
Duke was now called away to the great war. He was on the
staff of the Duke of Wellington, his former Chief Secretary,
at Waterloo, and it was his Duchess who gave the memorable
ball in Brussells on the 15th of June, immortalized in " Childe
Harold " when " there was a sound of revelry by night,"
broken by the cannon roar, and the partners, fair women
and brave men, parted, many for ever, for many were going
to the dance of death next^^day at Quatre Bras, and three
days after at Waterloo, j i Two of our greatest institutions,
the Richmond Hospital and the Richmond Lunatic Asylum,
commemorate the lieutenancy of our gallant life governor,
which, in the interests of our Hospital, was all too short.
Whilst here, his aunt. Lady Sarah Napier, the mother of the
three great Napiers, lived at Celbridge ; she had been the
lovely Sarah Lennox, the first love of young George III.,
and narrowly escaped being Queen of England.
About this time the Hospital obtained a windfall under
circumstances romantic in the history of charities. It may
be remembered that Alderman John Preston, one of our
founders, had granted the Hospital, with other gifts, £20 a
year, and this had been paid for more than one hundred
years ; it was tabled in the Commissioners' report of 1808 as
a simple annuity, but during their inquiry, it transpired
that Preston, by deed, had charged this annuity on his
estate of Cappoloughlin, in Queen's County, then only
yielding £80 a year, with two other charitable devises, to
schools in Meath and Queen's County of £35 and £25, thus
exhausting exactly the then rental of ;£8o, our annuity of
/20 being just one-fourth. Preston had thriven, his
descendants owned one of the best estates in Royal Meath,
and successively represented Navan or Meath in the Irish
* Minute Book, 35th November. 1S13.
TEMP. GEORGE III., 1S00-1820 251
Parliament, and in 1800, Mr. John Preston, of Bellinter,
was raised to the peerage as Lord Tara, for his rich lands
stretched from the Boyne to beneath the Dome of Tara Hill,
stronghold of the Irish Kings. It was now found that
Preston's deed provided that, if the rents increased, the sur-
plus should go to the three schools as his heirs should direct
The Education Commissioners now reported that great
abuses had taken place, in the application of the rents of
the lands, and that a large proportion remained still
unappropriated. We defer the sequel to the time, when, at
last, the rights of the Hospital were fully established, noting
merely here that in 1812 and 1813 some ;;^400 was paid to
our governors, in respect of their claims on the Cappoloughlin
rents.
Animated by this, some of our governors now proposed
to establish a classical school in the Hospital, with exhibitions
in Trinity College.^ At the same time, our physician. Dr.
Harty, who had hitherto gratuitously served with high
efficiency, sent in a strong memorial for a salar}'- now,
grounded on the late great increase both in the number of
boys in his charge and in that of the annual revenue, and
those projects might have been carried out, but, that while
under consideration, the roseate prospects began to darken.
The sinister shadows of the Court of Chancery gathered
round them, and the Preston rents, as after told, were
dissolving in costs, and unpaid to the Hospital.
Now, too, Chief Justice Downes became unable to attend
the Board. He was raised to the peerage in 1822, and dying
soon after, his title became extinct, but he has left us a noble
memory so long as the Hospital lives. His loss to us may be
seen in the fact that in the last five years of George III.'s
reign, there were only eighteen board meetings, at three of
which no work was done, as against twenty-eight in the
five previous years. In 18 16 there were only two meetings,
and in 1817 there appears to have been none. Tord Downes
was succeeded in the King's Bench by the graceful Charles
Kendal Bushe.
'' 17th February, 18 14.
252 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
For the peace restored after Waterloo did not biing
blessings to the Blue Coat. The war rents, as might have
been foreseen, fell as swiftly as they had risen. In 1815 the
Nodstown £1,400 was unpaid, and the governors were forced
to evict poor O'Ksarney, and let the lands for six months,
pending redemption, for £100, and when, two years alter,
they succeeded in re-lelting, it was at a loss of £400 a year.
Similarly our impropriate tithes of Mullingar and Kilcotty,
which, of course, depended on the value of farm produce,
fell perpetually in like proportion, so that, in 18 16, the
governors sorrowfully resolved, in view of these losses, that
no more boys should be admitted until the debts, " due to
the several persons who supply this house with provisions,"
shall be paid off. But for the strong contingent maintained
by the Erasmus Smith Board, the numbers must have fallen
disastrously.
As the governors may, at times, have seemed bigoted,
we may mention in connection with Nodstown, that at the
re-letting in 1810, Rev. James Slattery, the parish priest of
Ardmayle, in which the lands lay, petitioned the Board for
the site of his chapel, offering any rent they might require,
and this request, at a full meeting, was at once granted. It
was ordered that this site should be reserved from all
projected lettings, and held in trust for the chapel and yard,
at a shilling a year. At this meeting, Dr. Brodrick, Arch-
bishop of Cashel, was in the chair. The re-letting in 18 16,
to Mills, was on the terms asked by the x\rchbishop, of his
giving to the Protestant perpetual curate of Ardmayle ten
acres and a house for a glebe, but it was made subject to a
rent of four guineas an acre.
The old King died 29 January, 1820. Our last entry in
his reign in March, 1819, again reflects history outside.
O'Connell was now thundering for Catholic Emancipation,
and William Conyngham Plunket, in Parliament, was urging
that cause with Ciceronian eloquence. In the Dublin Evening
Post, their organ just then, appeared a series of paragraphs,
asserting that the Protestant petition to Parliament against
the proposed concession had been brought to the Hospital,
TEMP. GEORGE III., 1800-1820 253
and pressure put on the boys to sign it. A special meeting
of governors was thereupon summoned, and a committee of
enquiry directed, who duly reported that tliere was not the
slightest foundation for the statements thus made, and the
Board resolved unanimously that the publications were
false and scandalous, and tending to bring into disrepute
this most valuable institution, and to mislead Parliament
upon this momentous question, and they ordered this
resolution to be published in the Correspondent, The Patriot,
Saunder's Newsletter, and The Hibernian Journal.
Our Lord Mayor Chairmen from 180 r to the end of
George III.'s reign, were : —
1800-
I Charles Thorpe.
1810-11 Nathaniel Hone.
I-
2 Richard Manders.
11-12 Wm. H. Archer.
2-
3 Jacob Poole
12-13 Abraham B. King
3-
4 Henry Hutton
13-14 John Cash.
4-
5 Meredith Jenkin.
14-15 John Claudius Beres-
5-
6 James Vance.
15-16 Robert Shaw, [ford
6-
7 Joseph Pemberton.
16-17 Mark Bloxham.
7-
8 Hugh Trevor.
17-18 John Allen.
8-
9 Fredeiick Darley.
18-IQ Sir Thos. McKenny.
9-
10 Sir William Stamer^
iq-20 Sir William Stamer
Bart.
Bart.
254 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
CHAPTER XIV.
TEMP. GEORGE THE FOURTH. 1820-1830.
New hopes and energies awoke with the advent of a new reign,
and our governors now resumed activity. At their first and
full meeting in February twenty-eight boys were elected,
though the Board had to deal and continue to deal with the
depressing tale of claims for abatements in all their rents
dependant on the price of agricultural produce ; but it was
soon understood that the new King would visit Ireland next
year, the first royal advent since William III.'s, and as
Dublin would take chief place in the welcome, the position
of our civic dignitaries became enhanced, and even a seat on
the Blue Coat Board an object of ambition. Wlien, in May,
1821, Francis Hamilton was sworn as an alderman, he at
once politely wrote enclosing £100 for the Hospital, but his
gift horse was looked at in the mouth, and he was curtly
reminded that the fine was guineas, not pounds, and
requested to send the balance forthwith. Lawyers or
doctors similarly treated as to fees could not have done more.
Sir William Stamer, Bart., again Lord Mayor, our chairman
in the first year of George IV., was now succeeded by
Abraham Bradley King, also in his second mayoralt}'. On
him devolved the civic reception of His Majesty. He landed
in August, 1821, at Old Dunleary, on the sickle-shaped pier
which then formed the port, now only the coal harbour,
thenceforth to change the place name from the Fort of
Leary, old King of Erin, to the Town of George, Kmg of
Great Britain and Ireland. On the 17th he entered the city
in state. The Lord Mayor, who received him with all the
honours, was already a notable, for, when previously Lord
TEMP. GEORGE IV. 1820-1830
•^03
Mayor in 1813,- he had fought for and won for Dubhn the
privilege, till then enjoyed only by London, of presenting
petitions to the House of Commons by the Lord Mayor in
person ; and in this year, 1821, he had similarly obtained for
the city the right of addressing the Sovereign on the Throne
through the mouth of its Chief Magistrate. Thus he now
presented the city address to King George at the Castle, and
received the then unprecedented distinction of being named
a baronet by His Majesty himself. With him was Robert
Shaw, who had been our Chairman and Lord Mayor in 18 15.
He, too, was a notable, Colonel of the Dublin MiUtia, Member
for Dublin in the Imperial Parliament from 1804, a position
he held to 1826 ; and he, too, received a baronetcy on this
memorable day, in which honour he was followed by his two
sons successively, Sir Robert and Sii Frederick Shaw, the
brilliant member for the University, and Recorder of Dublin
for eight and forty years. On the 23rd the King was enter-
tained at a splendid banquet in the Mansion House, for
which the great Rotunda had been specially and rapidly
constructed in the gardens of the House, and which is still a
striking feature in the city as a centre of the civic hospitality.
To complete this tale of honours, Kingston James, our
chairman and Lord Maj^or in the following year, was knighted
by the Marquess Wellesley, and two years after received a
baronetcy, gi\^ng us four of that dignity on the Blue Coat
Board.
But, though keen to take part in symposia themselves,
our governors showed little sympathy with the festivities of
our boys. In April Alderman Trevor informed the Board he
had been told, as if of a scandal, that plays had been per-
formed in the dining hall by the boys, and submitted " the
impropriety of such like." It is curious that our chaplain,
Allan Morgan, was now attending all the meetings as a
governor, and was present then, so that he was presumably
cognizant of the practice. But the governors virtuously and
uanimously condemned " anything like theatrical per-
formances within the walls as highly improper," and, calling
in Dalton, the acting schoolmaster, peremptorily commanded
256 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
him to suppress the malpractices. They might have done
better had they adopted the usage of the great pubhc
schools of England, which tends to enlarge the classical taste
and elevate the theatrical instinct ; where, at the great anni-
versaries, the boys perform the splendid exemplars of
vSophocles, Aeschylus, and Euiipides, rehearsed throughout
the term, and in the presence of Old Boys, now statesmen
and soldiers, and the beautiful mothers and sisters of the
lads. But it would seem that at this time the discipline of
the School had got somewhat out of hand, probably owing to
the mistake of placing the chaplain on the Board. Nominally
" Head " of the School, he was the chief and the responsible
officer ; but it is always a delicate thing, and sometimes
impracticable, to treat a colleague as a subordinate, or freely
to criticise his action in his presence. Mr. Morgan had been
chosen a governor eight years before ; he constantly attended
the meetings, and this, apparently, was followed by a devolution
of the chief duties of Schoolmaster on his subordinate,
Mr. Dal ton, whom the boys, who are very keen in such
matters, well knew was not their real Head. So far back as
1813, just after the chaplain joined the Board, eight bo3^s
wrote to Surgeon Leake complaining of Dalton's sev^ere
chastisements and injustice. Leake brought the letter
before the Board, on which he, too, had a seat. With this
letter was read a statement of Dalton's suggesting new
regulations. Twenty-six governors were present, including
Leake and Morgan. Then the eight complainants weie
called in and minutely examined, and then the two senior
boys were similarly questioned. Finally Mr. Dalton was
heard. When these had withdrawn, and after conference, it
was proposed " that the Board do approve the conduct of
Mr. Dalton, the Master." An amendment was moved to add
the words " except in having used an instrument called
a Cat, contrary to the directions of the Board." This
amendment was voted on and lost, but only on a division,
and the original resolution of approval was carried with the
same divergence of opinion. It is not stated what the
numbers were, but the want of unanimity, we may be sure,
TEMP. GEORGE IV., 1820-18J0 257
became known in the School, and that not to the strengthening
of Dalton's authority. And so, in 1823, we have a recrudes-
cence of disorder. In July the Lord IMayor, John Smith
Fleming, called a special meeting to consider a letter of
I\Ir. Dalton statmg that the boys had got into a state of
msubordination, and had been guilty of such misconduct
lately that he had asked for this meeting with the view of
adopting a plan to restore order. The governors took the
matter up serioush', and diiected a strong committee to sit
from da}^ to day and report as to the steps necessary to
restore order and " prevent a repetition of such misconduct
(as is alleged) in future." The full and able report which
followed finds " that a spirit of party and consequent
insubordination, originating in the peculiar circumstances
now unfortunately connected with the anniversary of the
Battle of the Boyne, did exist among the pupils on the 12th,
13th, and 14th July, and that this arose from a partial
compliance with the wishes of the pupils, on Mr. Dalton's
part, which the committee considers was highly injudicious,
as it ought to have been either entire or unreserved or
altogether withheld." But it is clear from this report that the
root of disorder was in the want of harmony and true co-
operation between Mr. Morgan, whom they style chaplain
and Head Master, and Dalton, whom they style " the
Schoolmaster," and the delegation to the latter of the direct
control of the boys, both in school, at meals, and play hours ;
for they find that the resistance to Mr. Dalton's authority is
not, as alleged by him, attributable to the supposed inter-
course of the boys with the chaplain's servants, but to the
injudicious course taken in respect of the celebration of
12th July, and to other causes affecting the general welfare
of the School ; and, especially, to the too free intercourse with
strangers and with their parents and friends. They find
further that Mr. Dalton on the 15th July introduced into the
Schools and Infirmary a clerical gentleman unknown to the
other officers of the house, who admonished the pupils on the
recent occurrences, therein performing a duty which
peculiarly belonged to jNIr. Morgan, and which he had never
s
258 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
neglected, having discharged it on this occasion with the best
effects ; and that, in this instance, Mr. Dalton has failed in
that respect and deference due to Mr. Morgan, as Chaplain
and Head Master of the School. Whilst acknowledging that
Mr. Dalton's scholastic duties are efficiently and creditably
discharged, they find that he has not sufficiently carried out
the conditions of continuously attending at meals, play
hours, and dormitories on which his salary had been raised
in 1820. As to this, Dalton pleaded that he had fulfilled
these conditions in the spirit if not in the letter, but that he
would consider himself degraded, and would not be held in
respect by the pupils, should he mix with them durmg play
hours. This plea sounds strangely in these times, when one
of the first qualifications of a master in a public school is
to lead the boys at cricket or football ; but the views of the
committee would seem to condemn poor Dalton to an
indentured slavery, not only to teach but to attend the boys
in all the hours till he saw them safe in bed each night. But
theie is a further finding, " tliat, in punishing a boy for
presumed disobedience, he struck him violently with his
clenched fist, and therein evinced a want of temper and sound
discretion, unsuited to his official station and character.''
A usage of Mr. Dalton's is also condemned, that of allowing
the senior boys, who assist him in the school, to leave at 4
o'clock and to take private tuitions in the city until
bedtime.
The strange thing which strikes us in this stern report is the
absence of any reference to the permission of all tliat is thus
deemed blameworthy by the chiefly responsible officer,
the chaplain and headmaster, who, we must presume either
had not disapproved or had failed to report to the Boa rd of
which he was a member. But then he was at once a colleague
and chief salaried official.
This report came before the governors in August. They
adopted it, and voted accordingly that all boys above fifteen
should provide themselves with situations forthwith. This
points to the disorders having been fomented by the senior
boys, and to the permission given them to take tuition
TEMP. GEORGE IV., 1820-1830 259
outside. They recommended that an iishef should be
appointed to assist the schoolmaster ; but, thirdly, they
resolved " that, in the opinion of the Board, ]\Ir. Dalton had
failed in the discharge of those duties foi which he had
received the augmentation of his salary, and that he has
evinced a temper and disposition, such as will compel the
Board to interfere, in a more decisive manner, to remedy the
e\-ils, unless Mr. Dalton by his future conduct shall render it
unnecessary." This was indeed an application of the Cat to
poor Dalton himself ; if the reprimand stood it would have
enforced his resignation or destro3'^ed his influence with the
boys for ever ; but gentler counsels prevailed. It was felt
that, in supporting the report of their Committee so
drastically, the governors had gone too far. At the October
meeting the committee were invited to reconsider the
subject, with the hope they could make such amicable
arrangements as would prevent recurrence of such troubles ;
and, in November, the Board without dissent resolved that,
whilst highly sensible of the meritorious exertions of their
committee of inquiry on Mr. Dalton's statements, they felt
that, as haimony and discipline were now again restoied, and
as testimony had been given to the Board that had not been
before the committee and which had a favourable bearing
towards Mr. Dalton, they directed that the report of the
committee and all proceedings had thereon should be
rescinded, and rescinded they were accordingly. Richard
Smyth, Lord Mayor, presided at this meeting ; with him sat
the Bisiiop of Ossory, Dr. Robert Fowler, who had been long
on the Board when Archdeacon of Dublin, and several of the
governors who liad taken part in the reprimand of August.
It were pity indeed had this reprimand stood, for William
Dalton had for long years been a devoted servant. In his
History of Dublin, Whitelaw, who had been one of the
Education Commissioners, writing in 1817, speaks of him as
the Mathematical Master of most unwearied assiduity, wht),
himself educated at the School, was thus making the most
honourable return to the protectors of his youth. He
remarks that Dalton received ;/^20 a year in addition to his
26o FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
salary of £i8o from the Guild of Merchants as Mathematical
teacher ; and recommends the opulent Corporation to
furnish him with the scientific instruments of which it is
noted the School was then destitute.^
This eirenicon was probably promoted by Mr. Sutton, wlio,
as Master of the Trinity Guild, was one of the governors, for
he best knew Dalton's work ; and he now brought forward an
invitation from the Master and Wardens to the boys to
attend at their Hall on Wellington Quay on Holy Eve, and
partake of cake and wine, they not having had their usual
Feast of Cake and Wine on Trinity Eve, and the invitation
was gratefully accepted by the Board.
It is noticeable that when the governors rescinded the
resolution of reprimand a notice was given by Alderman
Archer to move that a letter be written to the Chaplain,
Mr. Morgan, and to Dr. Harty, asking their resignation as
governors, for the evils of divided authorit}^ and the incon-
venience of even the best officials being their own employers
had now been seen. The motion, however, was not persevered
ni. It is one thing to unwisely appomt ; it is another to undo
the unwisdom, without injustice, when a removable has been
made irremovable as a rector or a judge.
In 1827 the Catholic Emancipation Bill was becoming" a
burning question, not merely of Irish, but of imperial politics.
The atmosphere was surcharged with its electricity, for the
opposition was now boldly militant, led here by the Arch-
bishop of Dublin, Dr. Magee. A great scholar and a great
divine, he had been a Fellow of T.C.D. ; but he was a
statesman too, the intimate of Plunket and the notables of
the time ; but if a divine, he was not a diviner, for he believed
that the reformation was now only beginning in Ireland, thus
thinking from the vast growth of the Evangelical revival
through the kingdom and the new movement foi teaching
the Irish in their old language, which was still that of the
majority in many counties whence it has long since dis-
appeared. As a preacher it was said he equalled Dean
Kirwan as a born orator, with the difference that his sermons,,
i_Whitela\v's History of Dublin, by Walsh, p. S7--
TEMP. GEORGE IV., 1820-1830 261
when printed, justified their reputation. - The Archbishop
was now in the field. One of his measures was to assemble
the children of all church schools of Dublin in St. Patrick's
Cathedral, to which they were to march through the streets
on the King's Coronation Day. 19th July. Of these schools
the Blue Coat stood first as the school of the Corporation, and
the oldest foundation. On the 17th the Archbishop came to
the Board of which he was a governor, Samuel Tvndall, Lord
Ma3'or, in the chair, and moved tliat the boys be permitted
to proceed in procession to the cathedral with the children of
the other institutions of the city, and this was unanimously
agreed to. The report of this design roused to fury the
promoters of the Bill, and their press overflowed with
denunciations. Sir George Murra5% Commander of the
Forces in Ireland, recoiled, and refused to allow the Hibernian
boys to attend, on the pretext that their school was not a
charity ; and the Protestant orphans were also held back.
But the Archbishop, with all the rest, moved on. Marquess
Wellesley, the Lord Lieutenant, rode in the procession, for
which, of course, he was duly abused ; but the people in the
streets, despite the newspapers, took the scene good-
humouredly, and the great demonstration went off with
eclat. Next year the Archbishop repeated the ceremonial,
but the cause of the Bill had largely advanced, for O.'Connell
was returned for Parliament at the Clare Election ; so, when
the Archbishop came down to our Board in April and
renewed his proposal, there was a large attendance of thirt}''-
one governors, and an amendment suggested that the Blue
Coat boys, whose orange and blue uniforms made them
the most obnoxious to the opponents, should not join the
procession but go apart to the cathedral and to a gallery of
their own. These more cautious counsels, however, did not
prevail, and the Archbishop carried his full project by two
to one. The result was similar to that of the preceding year.
Next year the Emancipation Act passed, for the Duke of
Wellington and Peel had bent before the storm ; but the
Archbishop did not bend. At a meeting of thirty-two
- Dr. Ball's Reformed Church in Ireland, 276.
262 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
governors in June, Alexander Montgomery, Lord Mayor, in
the chair, he carried his motion that the boys should go in
procession in manner as in last year, and this time there was
no dissent. But this time, too, the opposition was even
fiercer than before. The denunciations in their press were so
vehement that it was thought they were intended to inflame
the mob to attack the children in the streets. The procession,
notwithstanding, was organized on even a larger scale than
before. On Wednesday, 17th July, five thousand children,
including the Blue Coats, marched through the city with
flags and banners flying, to the cathedral, where two high
thrones were erected, one for the Lord Lieutenant, Hugh
Percy, third Duke of Northumberland, the other for the
Archbishop himself. Then the five thousand, with full
consent, raised their young cheerful voices in the Old
Hundreth Psalm. Handel's great Coronation Anthem was
sung by the choir, and his Hallelujah Chorus at the close ;
and all passed off in peace. Despite the press, whose
bitterness had been specially aimed at the Blue Coat boys,
the populace looked quietly on, for our dear Dublin folk have
always had an innate sympathy with pageants, and some
oven cheered the marching youngsters.
At the same June meeting our governors were called on
to elect a new registrar in the room of ]\Ir. Hart, who had just
died, and ]\Ir. Addison Hone was chosen. Yet even this
within-doors affair was drawn into the political tide outside,
for at the preceding City Assembly there was tumult and
strife. The Commons renewed the claim made b}^ Charles
Lucas eighty years before, and which was supposed to have
been set at rest by the Act of 1761, that all members of the
Corporation were entitled to be governors of King's Hospital
under the charter, and therefore entitled to vote for the new
registrar. But the claim again proved futile. Mr. Hone was
elected unanimously, and worthily held office for the next
thirty years. This office has been remarkable in the long
tenures its holders have enjoyed. Mr. Hart, his predecessor,
was appointed in June, 1794, and served for thirty-five years.
Bartholomew Wybrants for thirty-six ; and our present
TEMP. GEORGE IV., 1820-1830 263
popular registrar, Mr. G. R. Armstrong, who succeeded to
the office in June, 1876, is now (1906) in the thirtieth year of
his tenure. Robert Hart was at the time deeply regretted,
and his services had, as we have seen, been warmly com-
mended by the first Education Commissioners twenty j^ears
before, and for a long time he discharged his duties faithfully
but it might have been better had this public eulogy not been
expressed, for it led to everything being left in his hands,
unchecked and unsupervised. It is painful to find that his
accounts at his death were in great disorder. The municipal
commission of 1835, on whose work the Corporation Act of
1840 was based, reported that in Hart's time the funds of the
Hospital were misapplied.^ This is quoted by the Endowed
Schools Commission of 1858 in their summaiy of the Blue
Coat property and the losses sustained by negligence and by
permitting the statute of limitations to run. The mode of
keeping the accounts from 1818 to 1826 is condemned, when
all, as it was said, was left to Hart.
This evil remissness, we may well suppose, was encouraged
by the already noticed laxity allowed to Allan Morgan, the
chaplain and head master, on whose headship so much
depended. A governor himself, he was chaplain to several
Lord Lieutenants successively, and took his scholastic duties
somewhat lightl}^ He seems to have been permitted to
relinquish them altogether ; for, when it was suggested by
the Education Commissioners in 1810 that the union of the
offices of chaplain and head master should be insisted on, it
was said that this should in fairness be deferred to the next
vacancy, as Mr. Morgan had so long acted as chaplain only ;
yet the minute on his original appointment in 1784 is decisive,
showing that he was then called in and expressly appointed
to the double duty. But, like his father, whom he then
succeeded, he had many lofty friends outside the Board.
He was the frequent guest of Lord Moira, afterwards
Marquess of Hastings, at Moira House, then a chief social
centre in Dublin, though now sunk from its high estate to
become the Mendicity on Usher's Quay. This socral prestige
■-Reports, 185, VoL I., p. 149.
264 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAI.
probably led to the governors making him a colleague and
giving him too free a hand. His high friends stood to him to
the last. Through the influence of Lord Forbes he was
appointed Dean of Killaloe in 1828, whilst still holding our
chaplaincy, but died two years after, just when George the
Fourth's reign ceased, on the 26th June, 1830. In one
respect his career was unique, he was chief officer of the Blue
Coat for forty-six years. His connection with King's
Hospital is preserved to-day in the person of his great-grand-
nephew, our excellent governor, Mr. William C. Stubbs.
Our Lord Mayor chairmen in George the Fourth's reign
were : —
1820-21 Sir Abraham Bradley 1824-25 Dniry Jones.
King, Bart. 25- b Thomas Abbott.
21- 2 Sir John Kingston 26- 7 Samuel W. Tyndall.
James^ Bart. 27- 8 Sir Edmund Nugent,
22- 3 Jolin Smyth Fleming 28- 9 Alexander Montgomery
23- 4 Richard Smyth. 20-30 Jacob West.
[ 265 ]
CHAPTER XV.
TEMP. WILLIAM THE FOURTH AND EARLY VICTORIA.
1830-1841.
The first act of the Board in the new reign was again to
reunite the offices of chaplain and head master in the person
of the Rev. James Walker King. He was an able and
accomplished man, but he was the son and heir of the late
chairman, Sir Abraham Biadley, and he was himself chaplain
to the new Lord Lieutenant, Marquess of Angiesea ; and the
position on the Board of his father, who was a magnate, his
own interests outside, and the poor example of Allan
Morgan's long headship did not contribute to the zeal and
devotion essential in the chief of a public school. In 1834 he
married, and this did not attach him more closely to dull
routine : he occasionally examined the senior boys, but
seems to have left the strain of teaching to Dalton, and
matters of discipline mainly to Mr. Hone, the registrar.
Then, in 1836, he resigned, and two years after succeeded to
his father's baronetcy, and his son is the present baronet,
Sir Charles Simeon King, of Corrard, Fermanagh, which his
ancestors had possessed from Charles L's time ; they were
kinsmen of the great Archbishop, to whom, as w^e have seen,
our King's Hospital owes so much.
In the early thirties our governors were much occupied
in enforcing their claims on Cappoloughlin mentioned
above, and the tale unfolds a romance of the nwsteries
of Chancery beside which Jamdyce v. Jarndyce shrinks,
acquitting the genius of Dickens of all overstatement of
the cause celebrc by which he wrought reforms which
the world had long sought vainly from jurists or judges.
266 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Even old lawyers, not merely of to-day, but those engaged
in such causes themselves, could hardly tell how they
could last for generations without doing anything, or
anything but evil ; for they had begun often generations
before the counsel or Lord Chancellor of the day had been
born. And as in this instance King's Hospital stood
defrauded for years and years, and the scandal has not
been hitherto disclosed, the scarce credible story must be
recorded here.
It has been already told how the Education Commissioners
in their report of 1810' had included in the Blue Coat
endowments an annuity of ;^20 granted by our old founder
John Preston in 1686, and how their inquiry, held on
other schools, disclosed that Preston's grant had given his
estate of Cappoloughhn, 739 acres in Queen's County, on an
educational trust for ever. The rental was then only £80
yearly, for those were the days of the Revolution. Of this
£80, £35 was to pay a schoolmaster in Navan, to be named by
his heirs ; {25, similarly, for one in Ballyroan; and one-fourth,
or £20, to the Blue Coat governors ; but, if the rental shoirld
increase, the surplus was to be divided between these schools
as his heirs and trustees should determine. The Commissioners
in a second report informed the Lord Lieutenant that
Cappoloughlin, with a rental now of £1,400 a year, was in
Chancery, and had been the subject of gross mismanagement
and abuses. Thereupon, in 1813, a statute (53 Geo. III.,
c. 107) created a great commission, long known as the Clare
Street Commissioners of Education — ^the Lord Chancellor,
the Archbishops, Provost, bishops, and magnates many,
armed with the most drastic power over endowed schools ;
it specially named the Preston foundations, and declared the
right of the Blire Coat to one-fourth of the Cappoloughlin
surplus.
But it needed a stronger Act to loosen the Chancery
clutches. With all their powers the Commissioners must
await the final decree in the Attorney-General v. Preston,
though that might linger to the judgment of all things ; and
1 Chapter XIII.
TEMP. WILLIAM IV. AND EARLY VICTORIA 267
yet they might hope, for was not Lord Manners the Chan-
cellor and chief in the Commission himself ? The suit was
indeed then dead, but awaiting resurrection from the limbo
of an abatement. So, in 1816. Attorney-General Saurin,
on the relation of the Commissioners, filed a Bill of Review
which sets forth the shameful and sordid story. It recites
Alderman Preston's deed, and how his four trustees and the
heirs of their survivors, and his own heir male and heir
general for ever were to manage Cappoloughlin and the
schools, his heirs to nominate the schoolmasters in Navan
and Ballyroan. The trusts were to begin on the death of his
widow, and no one knew when that was ; but in 1735 the
Attorney- General v. Edwards, the original cause, brought
estate and tiusts into the iron giasp of Chancery, and asked
to have the trusts carried out. These were simple enough ;
if it were to-day, a careful scheme could be at once submitted
to the Court and adopted at a moderate expense. But, to
follow the sorry sequel, one must recall the noble principles of
equity on which this suit was framed. One was the golden
lule that everyone, no matter how bare or unsubstantial his
interest in the cause, must be a party to it, and that no step,
however formal, could ever be taken unless all were present
to see equity done. Another was that if any one of all these
parties died, the cause in sympathy died with him, and so
lay dead till revived by a new bill telling the story all over
again. So this Attorney-General v. Edwards made defendants
Hugh Edwards and I\Trs. Margaret Faviere and her husband
John, representing the co-heiresses of David Cairns, the last
of John Preston's four trustees of 1686, and Mrs. Mary
Ludlow and her husband Peter, for she was Preston's heiress
at law, and the golden theory required that husbands must
be present to protect the rights of their ladies, though these
were nil ; and with these were John Preston of Bellinter. now
heir male, who, with his tenant defendant, Fysher, were
enjoying Cappoloughlin in breach of the trusts. In 1737
Lord Wyndham made his seemingly simple decree to carry
out the trusts, and directing that the heirs and trustees
should lay a scheme before the master, and that Mr. Preston
268 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
should give an account of the estate since old Mr. Preston's
death. But we are now naively told that " before am^^thing
was done under the decree Mr. Edwards died and with him
the cause, though this descendant of a long dead trustee, who
had never acted, had, perhaps, never even heard of Cappo-
loughlin till dragged into a suit he had no concern in. Equity
had then, as now, the power to appoint trustees of its own
when the legal trustees were not available, but another
golden rule forbade that this should be done till, at any cost,
the heirs of the last trustee should be found, though he might,
when found, prove to be a pauper, a fool, or a felon. So the
suit was revived, and a full new decree was made against
Hugh Edwards' heirs, three little girl minors, Olivia, Jane,
and Elizabeth, who were gravely commanded to carry out
the trusts. Thus time sped over, and other defendants died,
and again we are naively told that many new bills of revivor
were filed " as deaths of the parties required." Pending
these, nothing was done, save that Cappoloughlin was
" administered " by the Court, every new letting being
attended by all the parties to see justice done, all being
allov/ed their costs.
Thus we come to 1758, when the suit was only twenty-
three years old, and a new Attorney-General revived it,
asking that Mr. Preston and his tenant should be ordered to
give up Cappoloughlin, whither they had retired in the years
of suspended animation; but new heirs were now
indispensable parties, for Olivia Edwards had grown
up and was now Lady Rosse, and, with her
husband, Earl Richard, and Faviere's son, were
now the heirs of the old dead trustee Cairns.
Mrs. Ludlow, John Preston's heir when the suit began, was
now represented by her son. Lord Ludlow. But this new
suit lingered and broke down, the Evil One knows why.
Lord and Lady Rosse and her maiden sisters, Jane and
Elizabeth, now renounced any share in the fraudful game,
and it was only in 1773 the cause was again fully heard, when
the Chancellor, Lord Lifford, solemnly decreed that Lady
Rosse and her sisters should be discharged, and that all the
TE.MP. WILLIAM W. AND EARLY VICTORLA 269
remaining heirs and trustees should be at hberty to lay a
scheme before the Master in Chancery exactly as had been
ordered in vain b}'- Lord Wyndham only thirty-five years
before.
The case then was with Master Walker for two years, and,
on his reports, emerged before the Chancellor in 1776 for
another perfect decree, which ordered Lady Rosse and her
sisteis to convey Cappoloughlin to a body of trustees well
chosen by the Master, including, with the remaining heirs,
three bishops, a Fellow of Trinity College, and Lord Dawson
of Portarlington. It directed £^4^ a year to be allocated to
the schoolmasters of Navan and Ballyroan when these should
be appointed, but reserved further action till the heirs should
decide whether they wished to exercise their powers of
appointing the schoolmasters, though all of them were then
before the Court. This order, however, looked too much like
business ; so it was found when the ladies came to assign the
estate to the new trustees, that though prepared at great
cost, the name of Lord Dawson, now become Lord Carlow,
who had nothing to do with Cappoloughlin, had been
omitted. A new decree must be obtained from the Chancellor
to remedy this fatal defect ; and as it now transpired that
there were no school buildings or homes for the masters
either in Navan or Ballyroan, this last decree again ordered
a scheme to be proposed for these and laid before the Court.
It would seem that, after this, upon the next death, the
dead suit was allowed to lie dead. Possibly when Lord Clare
w-as Chancellor the ring of delinquents dared not let the case
come before one who would have stamped out the iniquity
instanter. For here a deeper dark settles on the lurid drama,
which the discoveries of the Clare Street Commissioners in
1816 only partially dispel. Attorney-General Sauiin's
reviving bill, however, tells such unbelieveable things as that
the conveyance of Cappoloughlin to the new trustees ordered
by Lord Lifford in 1777 had never been even executed, and
no schoolhouses had yet been built ; and that meanwhile two
receivers, who as officers of the Court had the estate in hands,
had successively put the rents into their pockets, the loot of
270 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Mr. John Joner reaching ;£2,ooo, followed by that of Mr.
Mark M'Causland, being £i;500 more. The Court, which,
like a silly pedigreeist, had been spending years and hundreds
in hunting after the heirs of the dead, who had never the
slightest interest in the case, never seems to have made
inquiiy after these brigands or the sureties answerable for
their defaults. Further it was found that Preston's heir-at-
law, who had become Lord Tara, had somehow been paid out of
Court for years, the salaries allocated to the two schoolmasters,
amounting to £175 yearly, and in 1794 had nominated his
brother, the Rev. Joseph Preston, as schoolmaster, both in
Navan and Ballyroan, the latter being forty miles from his
reverence's home. Tliis gentleman, it was averred, had only
been in tlie schools some seven times in as many years, and,
whilst appropriating the salaries, had named poor ushers as
deputies at starvmg wages. Meanwhile Cappoloughlin, re-let
in 1807 at the war rents, yielded nearly £6,000 in four yeais,
of which more than half was devoured in costs and expenses.
The Commissioners further told that in 181 3 they had, under
the powers of their Act, turned out the Reverend Joseph from
the mastership of Cavan, there being then only two children
in the school of the High Court of Chancery. He had
voluntarily resigned Ballyroan six years before, when the old
Commission was on the trail, but his brother. Lord Tara,
appointed one Hamilton deputy instead, and he, too, never
entered the walls. The Commissioners then resolved on a
large effective meicantile school, but here Lord Tara again
stepped in and, as Chancery nominator, named Rev. Alex.
Frankin, who, being required by the Commissioners to
discharge the duties, admitting his disability, resigned ; and
one M'Loughlin. named by Lord Tara instead, at the new
salary of £150, was found to be one of the old ushers at fi^
a year, and was disallowed by the Commissioners as wliolly
unfitted.
It is refreshing to read that one at least of these hereditary
trustees now refused to act further with the Chancery gang.
The reverend defendant, Joseph Favicre, one of the heirs of
Cairns, the last trustee, did so because he wished the trusts
TEMP. WILLIAM IV. AND EAELY VICTORIA 271
to be left wholly to the Commissioners, who, winding up with
the statement that both schools are in ruins, pray the Lord
Chancellor to discharge Tara as nominator, to vest Cappo-
loughlin in themselves, and allow them to execute theii
statutory duties.
But that would have stopped the cause, and the pleasant
little parties in the Master's office whenever tlie smallest
game was afoot, and where everyone was allowed his costs,
though nothing at all was done, since everyone must be
there according to the golden rule, and if anyone was absent,
though by negligence, there must be a further little party ;
for by another, and what we may call a brazen rule, the
Master could not disallow the costs, though he knew the
absence to have been negligent. This amazing impotence
was only remedied by statute in the fourth year of George IV.,
the partial reform being perhaps partly due to the scandals
of this very case.
So answers were filed by Lord Tara and otlicrs, fi\'e-barred
gates and wiie entanglements to prevent the capture of the
Fortress of Fraud. Tara pleaded his sacred rights as
Alderman Preston's heir male, and that his co-defendant,
Earl Ludlow, heir general, had always joined in liis
nominations of the schoolmasters, which, he sa3^s, had always
been sanctioned by the Court. Ludlow lived in England and
probably didn't even know where Ballyroan was, but he also
aided his kinsmen, putting in a similar answer. As to the
abuses charged they were discreetly silent. Then there were
replications and rejoinders, and the suit trailed on like a
slim}'- boa-constrictor till, nearly four years after the
Commissioners had intervened, it came before Lord ^Manners
for what was now hoped would be the final hearing.
In January, 1820, His Lordship did indeed decree that the
estates should be conveyed to the Commissioners, but, with
the appalling facts all before him, the prayer to displace Tara
and Ludlow as nominators \\as dismissed with costs ; all
parties w-ere to have their costs out of Cappoloughlin, and
the cause was to stand over — for what ? — to ascertain who
were the heirs of David Cairns, the last trustee of the deed
272 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
of one hundred and thirty years before, and who himself had -
never hved to act. But next year, again before anything
was done, Lord Tara died, and with him the cause ; but his
brother, the Reveiend Joseph, was now his heir and lieir
male of Alderman Pieston, and so the boa-constrictor,
scotched, not killed, must be galvanised, and the suit
recom.menced against that exemplary clergy^man.
But the barbed wires and five-barred gates were again
erected by him. His answer reads as a delightful sample of
subtle irony. As to the ruined school buildings, the
nicompetent masters, the paucity of scholars, without
admitting the facts, he pleads that, if these be true, they weie
all the work of the Court itself, with whom lay the
administration of all, and if enough money was not allowed,
surely the Court and not he or his brother was to blame.
As to the several abortive decrees of successive Chancellors,
he had no information, but would refer His Lordship to the
files of his own Court, where he could find it all himself.
Did the Loid Chancellor wince at this ? Surely Charles
Dickens could scarce have beaten it ! But as to the future
nominations, he relies on his rights as heir of the Founder,
which he is quite prepared, he says, to exercise.
So after a modest delay of three more years the case came
again before Lord Manners in June, 1824. Surely now
there must be an end. The decree is indeed a mighty one.
It fills thirty-two immense folio pages in our Record Office,
closely written, and would, if spun out like the cause itself,
have reached a furlong. In the first thirty-one pages it
rehearses all that we have hitherto told ; the last half page
contains His Lordship's wise decision on it all.
One would like to ask all the judges to guess what this
long sought judgment was. They couldn't. It sublimely
directs an inquiry — In whom the right of nomination of
masters to Navan and Bally roan rests, and who are the heirs
of David Cairns, the last trustee of 1686 !
The scandal is enhanced when we reflect how, whilst a
century was passed in hunting for the phantoms of a
phantom, the heirs of an old trustee, on the golden rule that
TEMP. WILLIAM IV. AND EARLY MCTORIA 273
all interests must be represented, nobody, of all the Chan-
cellois. Masters, Attorney-Generals, or solicitors, ever thought
it right to give notice to the Blue Coat governors of their
interest in the estate, in their ignorance of which they
accepted for two generations the 3'early pittance of £20,
whilst the surplus rents, of which they should have had a
full fourth, were lavished on a futile litigation.
The mountain was in labour ; this ridiculous mouse
emerged. Reading the reams of recital one might think the
Chancellor had tired before he came to his judgment, like
the little Dutchman who, wanting to win momentum to
jump a fence, took a mile to run at it, but, just as he reached
it, lay down fatigued before he could rise to spring. The
inquiries he directed had been made and answered to his
predecessor eighty-seven years before,the pedigree of heirship
had been represented ever since, and the then heirs were
there before him ; but certainty must be more certain, for
was not the golden rule that the wish of the pious founder
that his trustees for ever should manage his bounty far more
sacred than that his bounty itself should go according to his
wish for the training of the children upon his estate ? So
the ghost of David Cairns must again be captured. It is hard
to forbear surmise that the Chancellor was jealous of the
statute that gave commissioners the control of trusts that
were vested in himself, and shrank from the just condemna-
tion of their discharge by his Court ; and yet he was himself,
as has been said, one of the leading Commissioners, and thus
doubly a trustee of the very first magnitude.
So the boa-constrictor trailed on once more ; three years
elapsed before Master Ellis reported what everyone knew;
after telling all about Hugh Edwards and Lady Rosse and
her infant sisters, he declared the Reverend Joseph the true
nominator of schoolmasters, and Rev. Joseph Eaviere to be
the heir or ghost of David Cairns.
And thus it might have trailed to the crack of doom.
During all this sordid lapse the Commissioners, annually
reporting to the Lord Lieutenant, told how they were
hopefuUv awaiting a final decree, or that it scarcely can
T
274 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
be much longer deferred. Through all tlie dreary time the
Blue Coat had been basely defrauded. The governors seem
never to have seen John Preston's grant, until they learned
from the old Commission of their right to the surplus of
Cappoloughhn. When this was declared by the statute of
1813, their fourth share was found to be £362 yearly, and
that was actually paid them, by the Clare Street Conmiission
for 1812 and 1813, but after Attorney-General v. Lord
Tara the payments became intermittent and scant, the
apology being always " the cause and the costs." l^ut
in 1831 our board grew angry. John Claudius Beresford,
who was still one of our governors, and possessed the grit
of his gallant race, attacked the Clare Street Commissioners
themselves, boldly suggesting that they were battling us.
And, indeed, here again it is hard to avoid surmising that
their law^'eis had entered the vicious circle in Chancery
which was grinding the estate to costly powder without
moving it an inch towards the door. They pleaded to the
demand of a settlement, that the receivers' last account
must first be passed, and that the final decree was expected
daily. But Beresford declining to submit to any further
delay, a King's Counsel was appointed arbitrator, and he
awarded in 1833, £1,460 due to the Hospital after all
deductions, though but for the costs our arrears were then
nearly £5,000.
How the boa-constrictor actually died is somewhat
misty. We cannot find a final decree in the Record Office,
but we know that the Clare Street Commissioners reported
to Government in 1834, ^^^^.t the great cause was at last
ended, adding as their pathetic requiem—" after exactly
Ninety-nine Years."
Ninety-nine years doing nothing but mischief ; debasing
the great court, whose proud boast is to be the King's royal
guardian of charities and trusts, into an instrument of
chicane, rifling the charitv with breaches of trust of the
grossest. Fraudulent trustees now earn penal sen'itude
for far less rapine than this, our Jarndyce v. Jarndyce,
discloses. To those who ask how these thing? could be
TEMP. WILLIAM IV. AND EARLY VICTORIA 275
the answer is " The system and routine." The judge only
decided on what was laid before him at long intervals on
the Masters' reports. The blaster only decided what
the jxirties brought before him from time to time, and the
lawyers worked on from term to term, changing often,
and nobod}^ ever looking back on the past. And yet the
result was as bad as though all concerned, Chancellors,
Masters, parties, lawyers, had been banded together as
Sicilian brigands.
The Clare Street Commissioners have long since merged
in the Land Commission, and it is our comfort to know
that old John Preston's annuit}/ still yields us some £140
yearly, and to take such solace for our losses as v/e may
from the humorous side of this comico-tragedy. John
Claudius Beresford, who forced the falling of the curtain,
was not a man to be trifled uith safely. Strong himself,
he was a son of one of the strongest and perhaps then the
most influential potentate in Ireland — the Right Hon.
John Beresford, President of the Revenue Board, of whom
Lord Fitzwilliam complained that he had far more power
than the Lord Lieutenant himself. John Claudius was
himself also a memiber of the Privy Council, but he was
a city magnate too, and had been chairman of our Board
when Lord Mayor in 18 14.
Under the somewhat laisscz faire regime of Mr. King,
discipline had gone a little out of hand. The boys had been
allowed to go home or through the city too much as they
pleased, with the sure consequence when such laxity exists,
but the governors now had an invaluable addition in Dr.
Charles Elrington, the regius professor of Divinity in the
University. He cam^e as treasurer of the Erasmus Smith
board, to follow in the steps of his great predecessors.
Archbishop King and Lord Chief Justice Downes. In
paying this tiibute, it is a pleasure to know that he is still
represented in tlie Blue Coat, for his grandson, Frank
Elrington Ball, the late Lord Chancellor's son, is one of our
worthiest governors to-day. In 1835 Dr. Elrington carried
a scheme of new rules ; these restored the controlling power
276 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
over all in the Chaplain and Headmaster, with the sole and
specific charge of the religious instruction ; they carefully
guarded the system of exeats, whicli must be given in writing
by the Headmaster or Registrar. The classes were all
remodelled, and provision made for an usher to assist Dalton ;
they defined the hours of roll call, when the boys rose, and
at curfew, and they strictly required that und'^r no cir-
cumstances or at any time should the boys be left without
the presence of some master — "as controlling power over
their actions." Had Mr. King remained to carry out these
excellent reforms all might have been well, but he probably
found them too irksome a task, for next year he left us ;
and before they were given time to operate, the Reverend
Fielding Quid was elected to the united office.
This appointment was most unfortunate, for he proved
to be deficient in all the qualities requisite in the head of
a large public school. He failed as a teacher, whilst he was
absolutel}^ devoid of the disciplinary faculties so essential
to his position. He was a chronic invalid, and was con-
tinually asking leave of absence, and the most that could
be said for him, was that he was a blameless clergyman.
Though now headmaster, he interpreted his duties as such
in the light of his predecessors, Morgan and King, by
confining his tuition to the religious teaching, only
occasionally taking a secular class, but devolving all the
routine instruction on Dalton, the second master, and
Courtney, the ushei, and all disciplinary powers on these
and Mr. Hone, the Registrar. The result was that in the
next five years a spirit of anarchy was evoked which took
years to allay, and which made the last lustrum under our
old constitution domestically the most troubled of any in
our annals. The recurrent friction might well be forgotten,
but that it developed a saving element of humour which,
we may hope, gave some solace to the governors who had
to deal v/ith the troubles, and w^iich preserves for it a niclie
in this modest narrative now.
Had Dalton and Courtney been other than they were,
harmony might still have endured, but though poor Dalton
TEMP. WILLIAM IV. AND EARLY VICTORIA 277
was a devoted officer, and had profited by the reprimand of
a few years before, we have seen that he was somewhat
lacking in tact ; he had become, however, popular with
the boys. But Courtney, the usher, who now styled himself
junior master, shewed one title to the name, in tliat he
claimed, not only to be master over the boys, but to be
master of Dalton, whose subordinate he was. Dr.
Elrington's rules giving them a dual control over the
pupils through all the long day, gave an occasion for strained
relations which had not been foreseen. During King's
headmastership peace was preserved, but when enough time
was given to allow JMr. Quid's incapacity to transpire, the
war bioke out.
In December, 1837, Dalton sent to the governors a
moderate statement, which, without any incriminating
complaint, asked for some more clear definition _ of the
relative duties of tlie usher and himself, as there was now
some friction between them. Before any action was taken,
Courtney became aware of this proceeding of Dalton 's, and
thereupon the strain stretched to breaking point.
In calling the roll in the school-room at seven in the
morning, as ordered by the Elrington rules, Dalton 's usage
was to call it twice, and any bo}^ coming in afterwards was
asked b\' him to account for his absence. After roll the
boys passed to their classes under Courtney. One December
morning a boy came in after second call, and Dalton directed
him to come over and account; but, as the school hour had
just rung, Courtney had arrived to take up the class
to which the belated boy belonged, and, seeing this, Dalton
told him he might go, but this did not satisfy the usher ;
in presence of the school, he ordered the boy not to obey
his superior in office. This was too much, Dalton now
commanded the boy to come forward, but Courtney cried :
" I will not let him," and on Dalton approaching the lad
the usher interposed, and grasped Dalton in a personal
encounter, amid cnes of "shame" from the assembled
school. Dalton having, as he aftei wards said — " no alter-
native but to repel force by force or to submit to the usher's
278 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAT
domination," chose the latter, merely observing, " Your
conduct, sir, is exceedingly improper."
One might have supposed that this was a case for the
arbitrament of the Head Master, but no one seems to have
even thought of appealing to Mr. Quid. Dalton wrote to the
Loid Mayor, Samuel Warren, " as head governor and
authorized to act in cases of emergency." But the governors
seem to have only desired to hush the affair. Courtney had
been appointed by them under the new rules, and would
appear to have had some powerful influence amongst them,
for they took his excuse that he was acting under their orders
in taking his class, and they kindly suggested to Dalton that
as he had now been in office thirty-three years it might be
better for him to retire on a pension. His reply in writing is
modest and dignified ; expressing his desire to meet the
Board's wishes, he suggests that on the precedent in Beasley's
case his pension of two-thirds of salary and value of his
rooms would amount to £250 yearly. This caused the Board
to shrink, so the}' allowed things to go on for the present,
merely counselling peace.
They should have known, if they were wise, that things
could not end there. The boys had now espoused Dalton's
cause, and openly rebelled against Courtney. The latter had,
moreover, taken on himself the right of inflicting corporal
punishment, and used this freely, and friction recurred in
January ; but in February the boys, finding that Courtney's
cane had become keener since they had cried out " shame,"
refused to go up to his night roll in the dormitories, and,
locking themselves in the dining room, barred Courtney out.
He did apply then to Quid, who at first vainly begged the
boys to open the door; but, on being asked wh}^ they rebelled,
there arose a shout, " the usher, the usher." But Dalton
now came on the scene, and then the rebels quietly slipped
out by the further door, and the authorities entering found
the dining room empty and the boys gone to bed. The usher
could not complain of Dalton in this emente, for he had
warned the rebels in the usher's presence that they must be
punished for disobedience. So Courtney, thinking there
TEMP. WILLf^M IV. AND EARLY VICTORIA 279
might be danger in again directly appealing to the Board,
wrote a fierce indictment of the boys to Mr. Hone, giving the
names of nine ringleaders whose conduct was such as no
corporal punishment could adequately meet. " as they not
only seem still to exult in their misconduct, but to be under
the impression that no further notice will be taken of it, and
tiiat the singing boys only seem to be under the displeasure
of the governors." This allusion to the choir referred
to a well-founded complaint that on practising night an
unmentionable thing had been placed in the usher's seat
in the chapel, which must have been perpetrated with the
knowledge of all. This extreme measure of the contempt in
which the usher was held made it impossible to allow things
to continue as before. The inaction of the governors on the
usher's insubordination towards his superior naturally had
reacted in the boys' insubordination to the usher himself.
So Courtney was relieved of his office with an apparently
handsome testimonial ; but, as this class of literature is read
by the wise rather for what is omitted than for what is said,
we note that this one, whilst highly lauding Mr. Courtney's
literary endowments, his zeal, and his moral character, is
silent as to his temper or discretion or his qualification for
the management of schoolboys ; but the practice of
accelerating the departure of undesirable subordinates by
high encomium to facilitate their employment elsewhere is
not quite unknown even in these days.
The Board elected to the vacant places Mr. Fenby as
second master and Mr. Hanly as usher, but unfortunately
leaving Mr. Ould his nominal headship. For Fenby proved
so far worse than Courtney that he was now chief teacher,
and thus had colour for his treatment of Hanly, his
subordinate, whom he proceeded to discredit coram pueris.
Mr. Ould he treated with undisguised contempt. He took
from the usher the Scripture classes, which the chaplain
himself had placed in Hanly's charge, prohibited his taking
any part in the teaching of the seniors ; and, when, in his own
necessary absence, Hanly had taken up an algebra class, by a
message through one of the boys he obliged him to desist.
28o FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
It seems that the poor usher was the son of a shoemaker who
had supplied the School, so, in the presence of the boys,
Mr. Fenby produces some newly mended shoes and directs
the poor usher to inspect them, adding " I am no judge of
such things ; the last shoemaker was too poor to afford wax,"
and then joined in the laugh his refined pleasantry evoked ;
boys are, alas, too ready to rejoice when any of their masters
are put to the torture. Thus the usher's authority was for the
time wholly undermined ; the rebellious spirit, of course,
re-awoke, and Fenby, too, liad to face it. In December, 1838,
he joined with Hanly in a charge of sedition against a boy,
Hautainville, who had been one of the ringleaders against
Mr. Courtney some months before. The Committee who
heard tlie charge included Dr. Elrington ; they ordered that
Hautainville should be removed fromi the institution, and
that Mr. Quid should read the sentence next day in the full
schoolroom. But the chaplain himself now came in, and in
what the Committee records as a long and interesting
conversation told them the School as at present constituted
could not succeed in its objects ; he was directed to send a
written report to the next Board meeting. He, however,
had scarce withdrawn when F^enby, asking an interview,
lodged the following counterblast. It is given in full as a
specimen of the nadir which anarchy had now reached : —
First — that no gentleman comiiig into a large public school
for only one hour a day, and who is entirely unacquainted with
the various branches of science taught in the schools, and who
is likewise without any knowledge of the late improvements
adopted in the government and discipline of large schools, can
with any propriety, be considered as fully competent to be the
head-master without serious injury and impediment to the school.
Second. — That it is altogether impossible that the second
master can, with any degree of consistency, take on himself to
arrange the school on a new plan, and change its mode of
discipline, being at \he same time interfered with by the head-
master, a gentleman, who from his age, temper and want of
practical experience in the tuition and management of boys,
is altogether unfit for so important, difficult and arduous an
undertaking. Third. — That the assistant might be placed
under the control of the master, otherwise not being responsible
for the state and order of the schocl he has it in his power, should
I
TEMP. WILLIAM IV. AND EARLY VICTORIA 281
he feel hin:self offended by the master, instead of being a useful
auxiliary, to be an annoyance and destroj^er of the discipline
of the school.
This striking model of discipline the Committee simply
ordered to stand to the ensuing meeting.
Next day, when the school assembled to witness the
sentence of expulsion of Hautainville, Mr. Fenby, who had
joined in the complaint against him, walked out of the room,
presumably to leave the odium of the execution on the
chaplain and usher, for he was now courting the fa\-our of
the boys, as a despot often stirs Acheron, in view of the
pending inquiries. Thereupon a general hiss broke out from
the boys, who, on the following Sunday, armed with stones,
flung them at Hanly, and crying out they would have him
out of that, followed him to his room, and, assailing the door,
filled the lock with stones and sand. This fracas occupied the
next Committee to the exclusion of the larger pending cases.
The examination disclosed that the ringleaders w^re chiefly
those who had been denounced as such by Courtney the
year before. They admitted throwing stones, but pleaded
it was not at Hanly but after him. One little fellow, Charles
Bilton, was caught with a stone in his pocket, so, unable to
deny his missile, he explained that it was not there for
throwmg, and, as it was not flung in fact, it might be that it
was only a stone in his sleeve to be used in the general melee
as occasion might require. The Committee adjourned all
the cases^till after the Christmas holidays, so of course the
anarchy ceased not. Before the meeting in January, 1839,
Mr. Ould had a further charge against Fenby that he had
refused to give him a copy of the new rules — rather strange
that the Head Master should not have a copy himself.
At the meeting the Committee, having before them all the
cases, Fenby v. Ould and vice versa, and Hanly v. Fenby, cam.e
to the astounding conclusion that it did not appear necessary
to adopt any proceedings on the above complaints, all of
which were left in damning record on the minute books.
It is noticeable that Dr. Flrington was not present at^any of
the last preceding committees.
282 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
So of course there was soon a recrudescence. One of
the Elrington reforms directed that the boys should be
periodically inspected by examiners from outside, a salutary
measure, acted on ever since until the Intermediate system
made it unnecessary. The first examanation was fixed for
M^\^ Preparing for it in April, Mr. Quid took up one day
Mr. Fenby's history class, and, finding it utterly ignorant,
observed to the boys " I don't blame you." " To whom do
you refer ? " said Fenby, who was present. Quid replied
'•'To you, as their teacher." This scene had a sequel
A Mr. Irvine and another examined all the School during
two days in ]\Iay. Flis report on each class was fairly
favourable, but contained two ominous passages. After
praising the neatness of the boys, than whom he had seldom
seen a more interesting set, he adds that " When the
respective duties of each individual is properly defined, and
so limited as to prevent the duties coming in collision, then
may those interested in the well-being of the institution hope
for prosperity ; " and he thus concludes, " These are
circumstances on which I am not aware it is my duty to
remark, but as they seem to mar the advancement of the
School I cannot refrain from saying that they are worthy of
the investigation of the governors, in which I would be
happy to give any explanation as far as these things have
com.e within my knowledge." This calm verdict of an
outsider, ■\\hich in truth was a severe reflection on the apathy
of the governors, at last compelled a decisive inquiry.
This was forthwith held, and occupied two days ; Quid
and Fenby were present, and a charge was made that,
immediately before the examinations, the latter had bid the
boys not to answer in Scripture, which would thus secure
condemnation of the chaplain, whose special subject of
teaching it was, and so prepare for a breakdown in his own
subjects, wherein Quid had found his class so deficient. A
boy, M'Donald, alleged that Mr. Fenby told him if the boys
tripped or broke down in Scripture he, Fenby, would be all
right, otherwise he would lose his situation ; and asked him,
as he could not himiself interfere directly, to pass the word
TEMP. WILLIAM IV. AND EARLY VICTORIA 2S3
through the senior boys and all would be right. Another
boy, Clarke, stated he had heard tlie word go round generally,
but could not tell where it originated. A third boy, Colgan,
heard the words " Don't answ-er " go round, and passed it
himself to thiee others : he explained, however, his real
reason was only to cover liis own bad answering. As Colgan
was one of the rioters of the year before and one of the Hanly
stone throwers, his ingenuous plea was highly likely. Per
contra Master Nathaniel Joint said he had himself answered
as well as he could, but advised the other boys not to answer.
This, however, he naively explained, was to secure the
premium himself. The Committee, failing to see any humour
in this, made poor Joint their first victim, and sentenced him
to be turned out of the School. M'Donald, recalled, was
severely cross examined by Fenby, but without effect, and
solemnly asked to reconsider his evidence, said he would
swear to it if necessary. The cup was full. The Committee
reported to the Board their unanimous opinion that they
should dispense with the services of Mr. Fenby ; and this
at last they did.
In his place was chosen one of the very best officers the
Blue Coat has ever possessed, Mr. Louis Le Pan, of one of
the Dublin French refugee families. He had all the
characteristic faculties essential for a true head master. In
this position he was now placed, and retained it with the
commendation of all for more than a generation. He was
not now in orders, so he could not be made chaplain too.
Mr. Quid was retained in that latter office, but was relieved
of all his other scholastic duties. Even as chaplain he was a
melanchoh' failure. He w^as cautioned, however, not to
interfere with the ]\Iaster's headship. Mr. Hanly, too, was
retained with a caution, and a new official, Shirley, was
appointed as Superintendent to aid in the care and discipline
of the boys out of school hours. And peace w^as at length
restored in the schoolrooms.
But it would have been too ro.uch to hope that the heated
atmosphere, so long surcharged, should not have reached the
basement storey, where the feminine staff, which included
284 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
five nurses, were under the housekeeper, Mrs. Sherwin. As
this lady had £80 a year, with her maintenance and rooms,
she might have been thought the proper person to select the
kitchen chief, but the Board, who had taken charge of
domestic routine themselves, elected Miss Georgina Crawford,
with the common result when men take on them women's
functions. Miss Crawford's personality is so unique as to
merit a portrait ; — if the qualifications for a cook had been
literary, her selection was good, for she could quote Shakes-
peare, and Miss Edgeworth might have envied her writing.
She began by spurning Mrs. Sherwin's authority, on the
ground that, having been appointed by the Board, thev alone
were her masters. Then she brought in her father, who, an
absolute intruder, took upon him, in Mr. Le Pan's absence,
to ordei the boys into the dining hall before the prescribed
hour. As Le Pan had never even seen this man, he naturally
asked an explanation. Thereupon the gentle Georgina gave
a double knock at his door ; and, as he was just then not in,
slie made her way to the sittingroom, where a member of his
famil}^ sat, with an outburst of vituperation. This, on Mr.
Le Pan's return, she re-poured upon himself in language so
violent and insulting that it would be difficult, he says, to
convey an idea of it, and ended b}'' saying her father vn^ouM
have a Board called and have him turned out for insulting
her father (whom he had never peisonally seen), as also the
housekeeper, who apparently had suggested that this queen
of the kitchen had been drinking. Mr. Le Pan, calling in
Mrs. Sherwin, as the supposed regulator of things downstairs,
the invectives were only repeated with further force. All
the above was very moderately reported to the governors by
Le Pan at their own request. Mrs. Sherwin told the
Committee that Miss Georgina's language was such that, had
she been her own servant, she must have been discharged at
once. The Committee sat to four o'clock waiting for
Georgina, who only appeared when they had risen, and,
taking advantage of this absence, they postponed the inquiry
for a more convenient season, thus weakly adjourning it sine
die ; but Georgina was no ordinary person, they had chosen
TEMP. WILLIAM IV. AND EARLY VICTORIA 285
her themselves and they could trust to the magnanimitv of
Mr. Le Pan ; they were so far right, for she did not colHde
with him again.
But of course it did not end here. Within three months
the Committee sat on a protocol of Miss Crawford's, which is
indeed unique and beyond even the fancy of Swift in his
studies of the Servants' hall. The penmanship looks really
like that of a lady, and there is little doubt that both in this
and the style not one of the governors, save Dr. Elrington
perhaps, could have distantly approached it. In form it can
only be likened to the King's Speech ; there are six stately
paragraphs, each commencing " My Lords and Gentlemen,"
but, unlike those gracious yet cautious pronouncem.ents this
is an impeachment of the whole staff, high and low, as
engaged in a vile conspiracy against her. " My Lords and
Gentlemen," one paragraph runs, " you cannot but too
plainly see that a conspirac}' exists against me because I am
conscientiously and faithfully endeavouring to protect the
property of the institution and doing justice to the boj^s, this,
my Lords and Gentlemen, is the head and front of my
offending, and a few weeks will but too plainly prove the
truth of my economy in every branch under my care." ; and
she concludes, " I am very fond of my situation, and I take
a delight in performing its duties, and it is my determination
to continue to render justice to all parties. My Lords and
Gentlemen, I only ask in return your kind protection and
support to enable me to fulfil the duties of my situation with
satisfaction to your institution and credit to myself."
Her specific complaints are against the nurses and house-
keeper, and, with one exception, refer to small domestic
details ; but even these are couched in Johnsonian clauses ;
but she directly charges that on Sunday, 25th October,
Nurse 5 wilfully threw a gallon of scalding broth on her
hands and arms as she leaned over the boiler, which caused
her " excruciating pain," and obliged her to discharge her
duties for a week in torture ; and her evidence of conspiracy
is that the whole staff, whom she names, from IMr. Le Pan
down, showed an utter want of sympathy, Mr. Hone, the
286 FOUNDATION OF IHE KING'S HOSPITAL
registrar, refusing her demand to summon a Board, as her
complaints were too trifling for such a step. The refusal
was natural, for all who were piesent at the scalding had
informicd him that her charge against Nurse Johnston was
wholly baseless, that they had seen how she herself when
filling the vessel had accidentally tilted it into the boiler, and
Nurse Johnston solemnly declared in the presence of God
that she had never touched either gallon or pail, whilst all
five nurses sent in a statement that i\Iiss Crawford, ever since
she came, had kept them in complete confusion, and had told
them she would drain the last diop of her veins to be revenged
on them all.
Her clause aiming at Shirley, the superintendent, can
scarcely be passed by--" He, during the Fair week of
Donnybrook," she says, " wa.s absent on three several
occasions, having taken with him the key of the hall. Did
Mrs. Sherwm, or i\Ir. Le Pan, or !Mr. Hanly," she asks,
" report his absence to Mr. Hone, and, if so, has Mr. Hone
reported such negligence to the Board ? " This would have
done credit to a cross-examining counsel, though, perhaps, the
famous fair green would have been the most fitting scene for
the exercise of lier impartial warfare. Yet, in the face of all
this, the facile governors retained Miss Georgina \Aith a
gentle reprimand, accompanied by another on j\Irs. Sherwin
for not exercising greater firmness, and they added a comic
postscript which points to an oral hint from Georgina. It
orders that Mrs. Matthews, alias Baily, the infirmary nurse,
do exhibit her marriage certificate to the registrar, and,
in default, be immediately dismissed.
They were perhaps influenced by Georgina's apparent zeal
for economy. If so, their wisdom was tested when, two yeais
later, it was found that the charges for bread far exceeded
the estimated expense. Tlie police were set to watch the gates,
and forthwith arrested an under-servant, burdened with a large
fresh loaf. Taken to the station, she now deposed that she
was habitually thus sent out by Miss Crawford to sell the
loaf for sixpence and biing back the proceeds in the form of
whiskey. A special committee of inquiry then disclosed a
TEMP. WILLIAM IV. AND EARLY VICTORIA 287
long prevalent system of abuses under which the rations
given out to the under-staff were regularly sold to purcliasers
who came to the Hospital weekh^ as to a market. The
housekeeper successfully pleaded that as the governors liad
confirmed Miss Crawford's claim to be the officer of the Boaid,
independent of her, she could exorcise no contiol, and had
already felt the results of interference. The scandals had
now gone before the public through the Magistrates' Court.
Forensic skill could no longer screen even the gentle
Georgina, who, at last dismissed, henceforth disappears in
oblivion. j\Irs. Sherwin was pensioned off, and her successor
was duly charged with the selection of the new kitchen queen.
But, meanwhile, the radical change in our constitution had
come. In August, 1840, the ^Municipal Corporations Act
(3 & 4 Vic, cap. 108) was passed, by which the Blue Coat
ceased to be the cit}- school. Section 113 provides that the
existing sixty-one governors, the majority of whom were
members of the Corporation, should continue as individuals,
but no longer as representing the city. They were now
incorporated in accordance with King Charles's original
charter, but when they had become reduced to fifty, at
which number the Board should thenceforth stand, vacancies
should be filled up by the Lord Primate, the Lord Chancellor,
the Archbishop of Dublin, and the Bishop of Meath, except
the treasurer and three governors of the Erasnms Smiith
Board, who are always to be four of the fifty as delegated by
themselves, they also to have the co-option of four Blue Coat
governors for their own board, as provided by Archbishop
King's statute of George I. But the old power, once so
salutary, of co-opting eminent members, is taken awa}" from
the newly constituted Board. i
For the present, however, there was little change, and
under Mr. Le Pan efficiency reappeared on all sides, sa\'e in
the chaplain's classes. Dr. Harty, appointed in 1811, only
retired in 1854, having served with the utmost satisfaction
not only as physician, but as one oi the most active members
of the Board, for the long termi of forty-three years. His
^ See Appendix C.
28? FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
colleague, Dr. Read, appointed suigeon in 1823, so continued
up to 186 1 ; on Haity's retirement he took upon him the
twofold medical duties, for each of which ^40 a year had been
assigned, at a salary of £50. He in turn retired after good
service of thirty-eight years. The medical officers certainly
took care of themselves. Hanly, relieved of such overlord-
ship as Mr. Fenby's, remained second master up to 1876,
thus earning his pension after also having served just thirty-
eight 37ears. These long terms may be deemed a tribute to
the peacefully effective rule of the responsible Head master.
But the chaplain Ould still remained for nine long years
an incubus, indeed an Old Man of the Sea ; in every year he
is found defective. By a thoughtful order the governors had
directed " that his discources from the pulpit shall be, both
in substance and duration, such as are calculated for the
moral instruction and religious information of the boys
entrusted to his care." For failuie in this he is censured
next year. Then in the successive annual examinations his
classes are always reported as deficient in Scripture and
Catechism, and he is each time summoned to explain. His
excuses aie failing health and leaves of absence, or that he
has sent a sufficient substitute. But though the governors
sanctioned an assistant clergyman approved by Archbishop
Whateley and Dr. Elrington, the same unsatisfactory results
recurred. At last the governors resolved that in default of
amendment they must exercise their power of dismissal
under the charter. Thereupon the chaplain went alone to
the Archbishop. Now Dr. Whateley, like many strong and
masterful men, had the weakness of being open to flattery,
or what is coarsely called to be earwigged, and he very
incautiously wrote Mr. Ould a letter angrily condemning the
governors for presuming to suggest the dismissal of the
chaplain without resorting to him, our Diocesan, and
intimating that he would not approve a successor under the
charter. This letter Ould had printed and sent to the
governors. In a dignified missive to the Archbishop they
asked whether this treatment of his letter had been
sanctioned by his grace, and whether he was aware of the
TEMP. WILLIAM IV. AND EARLY VICTORIA 289
facts on which they had acted. Then Dr. Whateley perceived
the mistake he had made. Satisfied presumably with
Dr. Elrington as a due representative of the Church, he had
not personally taken part as a working governor. He now
explained that though he had not forbidden publication, he
liad intended his letter as a private one, and would certainly
not think of acting officially until he had heard both sides.
The chaplam was thereupon summoned by the Board and
asked to defend his recent action, and on his wholly failing
to do so, the former resolution of conditional dismissal was
unanimously passed in his presence. He shortly after
disappeared. Lc Pan had now graduated in divinity in the
University, and was immediately sanctioned by the Arch-
bishop as chaplain ; he obtained his Doctor's degree, and as
chaplain and head master ruled till his superannuation in
1876, alter a splendid record of thirty-seven years.
The drastic quality ot the new statute does not seem to
have been realized at first, for the majority of the governors
were still, in fact, members of the Corporation. They might
have seen what was coming from such a sign of the times as
the election of Daniel O'Connell to the mayoralty in
immediate succession to Sir John Ivingston James, our last
chairman under the old Protestant regime, O'Connell being
the first Lord Mayor of his communion since the days of Sir
Thomas Hacket and Tyrconnel, a century and a half before.
But in 1842 the government auditor under the Act sent to
the Board from London requiring a full statement of the
revenue from all sources, which led to the exhaustive report of
Mr. O'Brien, which has been already referred to, and he
warns the governors of the serious loss entailed by the
cessation of the Corporation grants ; he sympathetically
suggested that the new nominators should be asked to
enforce a gift of £100 from each governor nominated in
future. The Board thereupon resolved on an address to
Government setting forth that in the last twenty years they
hfid received from the city on the election of 22 aldermen
£2.210, and in respect of the 40 sheriffs in the same period
£4.200, the interest of which maintained fifteen pupils, and
u
290 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
they asked for an amending bill providing that all future
Protestant sheriffs and all future governors should contribute
one hundred guineas to the Hospital. This, of course, proved
abortive, their civic power had gone for ever. Dr. Whateley,
asked by them to arrange that the nominators should require
from each nominee a contribution as above, as was usual in
Christ's Hospital in London, declined, believing that the
selection being thus limited to the wealthy few, would
prevent that of useful governors who would not or could not
afford such a payment. This loss was deeply felt. When
the Act had passed there were 123 boys in the School, but
the numbers fell to 60 in twelve years, and twenty years ago
they only attained to 80.
But apart from this, all went well. Our Board in 1840
comprise the Primate, Lord J. G. Beresford, Archbishop
Whateley of Dublin, the Right Hon. Frederick Shaw, the
Recorder, then M.P, for the University, and Dr. Elrington,
who for many years after, as treasurer of the Erasmus Smitli
Board, gave his high services and continued to send tlie
additional seven boys, representing his treasurer's personal
fees ; he continued to superintend the religious training and
the annual examinations which he had instituted, and which
have been continued up to our time. After the old Corporate
governois had declined to fifty, and as the lives of these
continued to drop, the eminent prelates and the Lord
Chancellor, appointed by the statute as nominators, have
ever and anon sent to our Board some of the best representa-
tives of the social, official and commercial life of Dublin, and
the system, up to now has always worked well. The great
changes by which in the last half century vast sums from
public resources have been expended on Elementary
Education have gradually and necessarily raised the Hospital,
which has no share in Parliamentary grants or in rates,
to the distinct status of a Public School.
We have now reached the years of living memory, and
our task is done ; but in so far closing our annals it is very
grateful to know that never in its past has this historic
place attained such a position as it now holds under the
TEMP. WILLIAM IV. AND EARLY VICTORIA 291
auspices of its present chaplain and head master, Mr.
Richards. Under him improvement has been signal in
all departments. The numbers have been gradually laised
from seventy-eight to one hundred and thirty pupils,
and at all recent Intermediate examinations, and in many
of those for the Dublin and the Royal Universities, the
boys have made successful marks. The pla^^'ground, the
old Bowling Green of Dublin, which a few years since was
in winter a swamp, has by Mr. Richard's ingenuity been
raised some three feet without any felt expense, so that
now the King's Hospital stands high in the annual records
of cricket and football ; whilst in the late examinations in
Christian Knowledge, including the Greek Testaments, held
under the sanction of the General Synod of the Church of
Ireland, King's Hospital stood amongst the highest places.
Thus the torch that was lighted two hundred and thirty-
seven years ago has been handed on and down through all
the generations. May we trust that the principles of truth
and justice, religion and piety, on which our royal charter
was originally founded, are quickening to-day the life of this
School, to make it fragrant with the spirit of Christian
charity, and so may we conclude with the fervent hope that,
as in the coming time the successive tides of boyhood go
forth each year from its walls to the world, its best traditions
may be living powers to animate and sweeten their lives and
the lives of those that may gather around them. Et nati
natorum et qui nascuntur ah illis.
Our Chairmen and Lord Mayors in William IV., and to
1840 were :
1830-31
Sir R. W. Harty, Bart.
1831-32
Sir Thos. Whelan
1832-33
Charles F. Archer
1833-34
Sir George Whiteford
1834-35
Arthur Perrin
1835-36
Arthur Morrison
1836-37
William Hodges
1837-38
Samuel Warren
1838-39
George Hoyte
1839-40
Sir R. W. Brady
1840-41
Sir John Kingston James, Bart.
''■'/ 'Pjo
L'I'o face pase ■JIC-!
[ 2Q3 ]
APPENDIX A.
THE ROYAL CHARTER, Etc.
Charles the Second, by the Grace of God, of England, Scotland,
France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. To all
to whom these Presents shah come Greeting. Whereas the
Mayor, Sheriffs, Commons and Citizens of our City of Dublin,
in our Kingdom of Ireland, have humbly petitioned Us. thereby
setting forth. That several of our Subjects in that our City and
Kingdom, beings charitably affected towards such as thro ugh
Age, Sickness, or other AccidentSj^^are reduced to Poverty,
or disabled to gain their Liviiig by their own Labour ; and piously
considering also the great B enefit cf the good Educat ion and
Instruction of Youth ; have proposed the Erection, building^and
establishing of an Hospital and Free Schocl, within the Liberties
of our City of Dublin, and have shewed great Willingness to
contribute to so good a Work, which they hope to accomplish,
in Case they may, by our Royal Authority, be enabled and
capacitated to purchase Lands, Tenements and Hereditaments
for the erecting and maintaining of such an Hospital and Free
School, and to make good, wholesome and necessary Laws for the
Rule and Government thereof. Know Ye therefore, that We of
our princely Disposition, for the Furtherance and AccompHsh-
ment of so good and charitable a Work, of our especial Grace,
certain Knowledge and mere Motion, by and with the Advice
and Consent of our right trusty and well beloved Counsellor,
John, Lord Berkeley, our Lieutenant General and General
Governour of our said Realm of Ireland, and according to the
Tenour and Effect of our Letters, bearing Date of our Court at
Whitehall, the four and twentieth Day cf October, in the three
and twentieth Year of our Reign, and now enrolled in the Rolls
in our High Court of Chancery in our said Realm of Ireland,
Have given, granted, released and confirmed. And by these
Presents for Us, our Heirs and Successors, Do give, grant, release
and confirm unto the said Mayor, Sheriffs, Commons, and
Citizens of Our City of Dublin, and their successors for ever,
ALL that Piece or Parcel of Ground on Oxmaniown Green, near
Jb7^
2Q4 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Our said City of Dublin, on which the intended Hospital and
Free School is already begun to be built. And all and singular
the Edifices and Buildings thereon, and all Yards, Backsides,
Lands. Tenements, Ways, Waters, Water-courses, Easements,
Liberties, Privileges, Profits, Commodities, Advantages, Appur-
tenances, and Hereditaments whatsoever, to the same belonging
or appertaining, of what Quantity, Quality, Nature, Kind, or
Sort soever they be, and by whatsoever Name or Names the
same are called or known, or reputed, accepted or taken, together
with their and every of their Rights, Members and Appurtenances
whatsoever ; and also the Reversion and Reversions, Remainder
and Remainders of all and singular the Premises, and every
Part and Parcel thereof, and also all the Estate, Right, Title,
Interest, Claim, Property, Challenge and Demand whatsoever
which We Our Heirs or Successors have, or at any Time hereafter
may, can, might or ought to have of, in, or unto the Premises,
or unto any Part or Parcel thereof. To have and to hold all
and singular the Premises before, in and by these Presents given,
granted, released and confirmed, or herein or hereby meant,
mentioned, or intended to be given, granted, released and
confirmed, and every Part, Parcel and Member thereof, together
with their and every of their Rights, Members and Appurtenances
whatsoever, unto them the said Mayor, Sheriffs, Commons, and
Citizens of Our City of Dublin, and their Successors for ever ;
to be held and enjoyed by the said Mayor, Sheriffs, Commons,
and Citizens of Our said City of Dublin, and their Successors
for ever ; to the only Use, Ends, Intents and Purposes hereafter
in these Presents mentioned and expressed ; that is to say.
Upon the especial Trust and Confidence, and to the End, Intent
and Purpose, that the said Piece of Ground on Oxmantown Green
aforesaid, hereby granted, or meant, mentioned, and intended to
be granted, and the building thereon erected, and to be erected,
Shall for ever more hereafter be, remain and continue a Mansion
House, and Place of Abode for the Sustentation and Relief of
poor Children, aged and impotent People ; to be holden of Us
our Heirs and Successors, as of our Castle of Dublin, in Free
and Common Soccage, without any Rent or other Payment to be
rendered or paid unto Us, Our Heirs and Successors for the same.
And further of Our more abundant Grace, certain Knowledge,
and Mere Motion, and princely Disposition for the Furtherance
and Accomphshment of so good and charitable a Work, by and
with the Advice and Consent aforesaid, and in Pursuance of our
said Letters, We have given and granted, and by these Presents
for Us, Our Heirs and Successors, We do give and grant unto
the said Mayor, Sheriffs, Commons, and Citizens of Our said City
of Dublin, and their Successors for ever, full Power and Authority,
at their Will and Pleasures, from Time to Time, and at all Times,
to place therein such Master or Masters of the said Hospital,
APPENDICES 295
and s uch Numbers of Poor People and Childr en, and such Officers
or Ministers of the said Hospital and Free ISchool, as likewise an
able, learned, pious and orthodox Minister, to be_ approved of
from Time to Time by th e Archbishop of D ublin, for the time
being ; the said Minister to read Divine Service, and preach
and teach the Word of God to such as shall reside within the
same, and catechize juch C hild ren a s shall be in the said Hospital
or Free School, as to the said Mayor, Sheriffs, Commons, and
Citizens, and their Successors, or such as shall be appointed as
aforesaid, shall seem convenient ; and from Time to Time, as
they shall see Occasion, to remove, displace, and amove such
Masters, Minister, Poor, poor Children, People, or any other
Officers or Ministers to the said Hospital or Free School belonging,
and put some other or others in his or their Place or Stead, and
to apportion, appoint, and allow, from Time to Time such Fees,
Salaries, and Wages, and such Allowances for Maintenance,
Rehef and Sustentation of the said Preacher, Master or Masters,
other Officers or Ministers, and the said poor People and Children,
as to them the said Mayor, Sheriffs, Commons and Citizens, and
their Successors, shall seem meet ; And that it shall and may
be lawful to and for the said Mayor, Sheriffs, Commons and
Citizens, and their Successors, from Time to Time, and at all
Times hereafter, when and as often as it shall seem expedient,
or Necessity shall require, to make, constitute and appoint all
or any such apt, wholesome and honest Ordinances, Statutes,
Rules and Orders for or in Relation to the well governing of the
said Hospital and Free School, or either of them, or the Master,
Minister, Poor, poor Children, or any other Officers or Ministers
to the said Hospital, or Free School, belonging or to be belonging,
as to them the said Mayor, Sheriffs, Commons and Citizens, and
their Successors, shall seem meet, convenient, or necessary,
giving and hereby graiiting unto them the said Mayor, Sheriffs,
Commons and Citizens and their Successors, full and absolute
Power and Authority to perform and execute all Act or Acts,
Thing or Things whatsoever, that shall be requisite and necessary
to be done for the putting in Execution or compelling a Per-
formance of all such Ordinances, Statutes, Rules and Orders
that shall, by Vertue of these Presents, be made, constituted or
appointed, without Interruption of Us, our Heirs, or Successors,
or any of the Justices, Escheators, Sheriffs, Ministers, Servants,
or other Subjects whatsoever, of Us, Our Heirs, or Successors, any
Statute, Act, Law, or Direction heretofore done or made, or
hereafter to be done or made to the contrary notwithstanding ;
so that such Statutes, Ordinances, Rules, or Orders so to be
made, constituted, or appointed by Vertue of these Presents, be
not contrary or disagreeing to the Laws and Statutes of Our
Kingdom of England or Ireland, or Our Royal Authority, and
such Rules, Ordinances and Statutes to disanul and make void
296 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
as shall by the said Mayors, Sheriffs, Commons and Citizens be
found from Time to Time prejudicial and hurtful to the Govern-
ment of the said Hospital and Fi-ee School. And further of Our
more abundant Grace, certain Knowledge, meer Motion, and
princely Disposition, for the Furtherance and Accomplishment of
so good and charitable a Work, by and with the Advice and
Consent aforesaid, and in Pursuance of Our said Letters, We
have also given and granted, and by these Presents for Us, Our
Heirs and Successors, do give and grant unto the said Mayor,
Sheriffs, Commons and Citizens of our said City of Dublin, and
their Successors for ever. That the said Hospital and Free School
shall be named, Incorporated, and called The Hospital and
Free-school of King Charles the Second, Dublin, and by
that Name shall be and is hereby erected, founded, estabhshed
and confirmed, and to have Maintenance and Continuance for
ever, and that the Mayors, Sheriffs, Commons and Citizens of Our
said City of Dublin, and their Successors, shall be from Time to
Time Governors of the said Hospital and Free School, and of
the Lands and Tenements, Possessions, Revenues and Goods,
unto the same belonging, or to be belonging, and shall be called
and known by the Name of the Governors of the Hospital and
Free School of King Charles the Second, Dublin, and that the
said Governors shall be and for ever continue by the Name of the
Governors of the Hospital and Free School of King Charles the
Second, Dublin, a Body Politic and Corporate, to have Successors
for ever, and by that Name shall be and continue, and shall be
able and capable in Law from Time to Time, and at all Times, to
sue or be sued in any of Our Courts Spiritual and Temporal,
within Our Kingdom of Ireland, or other Our Kingdoms and
Dominions, in Relation to the said Hospital and Free School,
or any of the Lands, Tenements or Possessions, Revenues or
Goods unto the same belonging, or to be belonging, or for any
Transgressions, Offences, Matters, Causes, or Things made,
committed, or done, or to be done, in or upon the Premises, or
any Part thereof, or any Thing in these Presents specified, and to
purchase, take, hold, receive and enjoy to them and their
Successors for ever, to the Ends aforesaid, as well Goods and
Chatties, as also any Manors, Lands, Tenements, Rents,
Reversions, Annuities, and Hereditaments whatsoever, as well
from Us, our Heirs, and Successors, as of any other Person or
Persons whatsoever, not exceeding the yearly Value of Six
Thousand Pounds Sterling, the Statutes of Mortmain or any
other Statutes to the contrary notwithstanding : And further
of Our more abundant Grace, certain Knowledge, meer Motion,
and princely Disposition, for the Furtherance and Accomplish-
ment of so good and charitable a Work, by and with the Advice
and Consent aforesaid, and in Pursuance of Our said Letters,
We have also given and granted, and by these Presents for Us,
APPENDICES 297
Our Heirs, and Successors, do give and grant free Liberty and
License, that the said Governors, and their Successors, may
have and enjoy a Common Seal for the seahng of any Instrument,
or Instruments, Deeds, or Writings, touching and concerning
the Lands, Tenements and Hereditaments, Businesses, or Affairs
of the said Hospital and Free School ; nevertheless Our Royal
Pleasure, Intent, and Meaning is, that the said Governors, or
their Successors, shall not do, or suffer to be done, at any Time
hereafter, any Act or Thing whereby any of the Lands, Tenements,
or Hereditaments, or the Estate which shall belong to the said
Corporation, shall be conveyed, ahenated, or transferred, to any
other Use whatsoever than to the Use of the said Hospital or
Free School, and that the said Gov-ernors, for the Time being,
shall not make any other Lease or Leases of any of the Lands,
Tenements, Possessions, cr Hereditaments, which shall belong
to the said Corporation than for the Term of Forty-one Years,
of Houses, or Buildings, or Ground to be built on, and of Tweisty-
one Years of Lands, Tythes, or other Hereditaments, and those
to be made either in Possession, or not .above Two Years before
the Expiration of the State in Possession, and that without
Fine or Income, at the best yearly Rent that bona fide from good
and solvent Tenants may be had, and that no Lease be made to
any of the aforesaid Governors, or to any other Person or persons
to the Use, or for in Trust for any of the said Governors : And
further of our more abundant Grace, certain Knowledge, and
meer Motion, by and with the Advice and Consent aforesaid,
and in Pursuance of our said Letters, We have given and granted,
and by these Presents for Us, Our Hen's,and Successors, do give,
and grant unto the said Mayor, Sheriffs, Commons and Citizens
of Our City of Dublin, and their Successors, that these Our Letters
Patents, or the Inrolment thereof, and every Clause, Article,
Matter, and Thing whatsoever, herein contained, shall be in, by
and through all Things firm, good, valid, sufficient, and effectual
in the Law unto them the said Mayor, Sheriffs, Commons and
Citizens, and their Successors, against Us, Our Heirs, and
Successors, as well in all Our Courts within our said Realm of
Ireland as elsewhere wheresoever, notwithstanding the not
finding, or not returning, or ill finding, or ill returning of any
Office, or Inquisition, of the Parcel of Ground and Premises in
and by these Letters Our Patents, meant, mentioned, and intended
to be given and granted for the Ends and Purposes aforesaid,
whereby our Title should have been found of, in, and unto the
said Premises and every Part and Parcel thereof, before the
making of these Presents, and notwithstanding the not naming
cr not rightly naming of the Premises, or any Part or Parcel
thereof, or the Parish, Ward, Liberty, Freedom, or Place, in
which the Premises, or any Part or Parcel thereof, is, are, or do
lie, and notwithstanding the not naming, or not rightly naming,
298 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
the Quantity, Quality, Nature, Kind, or Sort of the Premises,
or any Part or Parcel thereof, and notwithstanding that of the
true annual Value, Rate, Survey, Quantity, or Quality, of the
Premises, there be no true, certain, or no mention made in these
presents, and notwithstanding the not naming, or not reciting,
or ill naming, or ill reciting, of any Grant or Grants, Lease or
Leases, heretofore made of the Premises, or any Part or Parcel
thereof, to any Person or Persons whatsoever for Term of Life,
Lives, or Years, in Fee Simple, or Fee Tail, or otherwise howsoever,
remaining of Record, or not of Record, and notwithstanding
that of the rent heretofore reserved upon any former Demise or
Demises, Lease or Leases, heretofore made of the Premises, or
any Part or Parcel thereof, there be no full, true, certain, or no
mention at all made in these Presents, and notwithstanding a
certain Statute made in the Parliament held at Westminster, in Our
said Kingdom of England, in the Eighteenth Year of the Reign
of King Henry the Sixth, late King of England, Our Predecessor
and notwithstanding a certain statute made in the Parliament
held at Limerick, in our said Kingdom of Ireland, in the Thirtieth
Year of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth, late King cf England,
Our Predecessor, the Title of which Act is. An Act for Lands
given by the King, and notwithstanding any other Statute or
Act made in Our said Kingdom of Ireland, in any of the Years of
the Reign of the said King Henry the Eighth, and notwithstanding
a certain statute made in Our Said Kingdom of Ireland, the
Second Year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, late Queen of
England, Our Predecessor ; and notwithstanding any other
Statute or Act, Statutes or Acts, made in our said Kingdom of
Ireland, in the said Second Year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth,
or any other Year of the Reign of the said Queen Elizabeth, or
of any other the Kings or Queens of England ; and notwith-
standing any Act, Clause, Provision, or Ordinance made in the
Parliament begun at Dublin in the Fifteenth Year of the Reign
of our late Royal Father, of ever glorious Memory, deceased ;
and notwithstanding any other Statute, Act, Ordinance, Pro-
vision, or Restriction, or any other Cause, Matter, or Thing
whatsoever, to the Evacuation or Annihilation of these Our
Letters Patents ; and notwithstanding a Writ of ad quod
damnum hath not issued to enquire concerning the Premises,
And Our further Will and Pleasure is, and We do by these
Presents for Us, our Heirs and Successors, give and grant unto
the said Mayor, Sheriffs, Commons and Citizens of our said City
cf Dublin, and their Successors, That they the said Mayor,
Sheriffs, Commons and Citizens of Our said City of Dublin,
shall have these Our Letters Patents under Our Great Seal of
Ireland wdthout Fine, great or small, to be therefore paid to Our
Use in Our Hanaper, in Our said Kingdom cf Ireland, Although
Express Mention is not made cf the clear yearly Value, or of the
APPENDICES 299
Certainty of the Premises, or that any Gift or Grant heretofore
made by Us, or Our Progenitors, to the said Mayor, Sheriffs,
Commons and Citizens of Our said City of Dublin of the Premises,
any Statute, Act, Ordinaiice, or Provision, or any other Cause
or Matter whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding ; Provided
always that these Our Letters Patents be inrolled in the Rolls of
Our High Court of Chancery in Our said Kingdom of Ireland ^
within the Space of Six Months next ensuing the Date of these
Presents. In Witness whereof We have caused these Our Letters
to be made Patents. Witness Our aforesaid Lieutenant General
and General Governor of Our said Kingdom of Ireland at Dublin,
the Fifth Day of December, in the Three and Twentieth Year of / 6 "^ O
our Reign.
DOMVILE.
Irrotulat in Rot. Paten. Can-
cellar. Hibnie Vicessimo Sexto
Die Januarii Anno Regni Re-
gis Caroli Seciindi Vicessimo
Tertio, et examinat per me
Ra. Wallis, Cleric, in Offico
Mri. Rotolor.
300 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
APPENDIX B.
See p. 156.
SECTION'S AFFECTING KiNG'S HoSPITAL IN AN ACT, lOth, GeO. I,
entitled, " an act for further application of the
1^ Rents and Profits of the Lands and Tenements,"
FORMERLY GIVEN BY ERASMUS SmITH, EsQ., DECEASED, TO
CHARITABLE PURPOSES.
And whereas the Governors of the said Schools have come to an
agreement with the Governors of the Hospital and Free
School of King Charles the Second, Dublin, commonly called the
Blue Coat Hospital, in the City of Dublin, on the terms herein-
after mentioned, viz. : that the Governors of the Schools shall give,
to the Governors of the Blue Coat Hospital, three hundred pounds
sterling, towards building an Infirmary for the said Hospital,
for the reception of forty boys ; that in consideration of the said
sum of three hundred pounds, the Governors of the said Hospital
shall find convenient reception in the said Hospital for any
number of boys to be named and placed therein by the Governors
of the Schools, not exceeding twenty, to have the same reception,
maintenance and clothing, and be, every way, under the same
regulation as the other boys in the said Hospital are : that the
Governors of the Schools shall find bedding and the usual
furniture for each room, for such boys as shall be placed by them
in the said Hospital at their first entrance therein, until such time
as provision shall be made for the number of twenty boys, agreed
upon, to be placed in the said Hospital, after which the repairing
and keeping the said bedding and furniture are to be charged
in the annual expense, for the maintenance of the said boys,
according to the usage and custom of the said Hospital : that the
Governors of the said Schools shall pay, to the Governors of the
Blue Coat Hospital, for the maintenance of each and every
boy placed by them in the said Hospital, the same rate that
the other boys in the said Hospital are maintained at, and that
such sums as are found necessary for maintenance of each and
APPENDICES 301
every boy placed in the said Hospital, as aforesaid, shall be paid
quarterly, and the accounts shall be made once every year :
that the Governors of the said Schools shall pay five pounds
per annum, to the Schoolmaster of the said Hospital, for teaching
the boys which shall be placed in the said Hospital by the
Governors : that the Governors of the said Schools shall pay the
same rate that is paid for the other boys, who are taught the
mathematics in the said Hospital, if the Governors of the Schools
desire that any of the boys placed by them in the said Hospital
be taught the same : that the Governors of the Schools shall and
will, at their own expense, bind out each- and every boy that shall
be nominated and placed by them in the said Hospital, as soon
as he and they shall be fit to be put out apprentice, to such
Master as the Governors of the Schools shall approve of, and
shall give such fee as the Governors of the Hospital give w'ith
the other boys to be put out apprentice by them ; that the Lord
Mayor, Recorder, and two Aldermen, by the Governors of the
Hospital to be chosen, shall be standing Governors of the Schools
founded by Erasmus Smith, esquire : that four of the Governors
of the Schools, by them to be chosen, shall be standing Governors
of the said Hospital : that the Governors of the Schools shall
and will, at their own expense, next sessions of Parliament,
endeavour to get an act of Parliament passed in this kingdom,
to make the foregoing agreement effectual.
Therefore, for rendering the said agreement effectual, and
for the encouragement of so good and charitable a work, be it
enacted, that the said agreement be, and is hereby ratified and
confirmed, and be it therefore enacted, by the authority aforesaid,
that the Treasurer of the Governors of the said Schools shall,
out of the cash now in, or which shall hereafter come to his hands,
with all convenient speed, pay, to the Governors of the said
Hospital and Free School of King Charles the Second, Dublin,
commonly called the Blue Coat Hospital, the said sum of three
hundred pounds, sterling, towards building an Infiimary as
aforesaid ; and also find and provide bedding and other iisual
furniture for each room for such boys as shall be by them placed
in the said Blue Coat Hospital, the keeping and repairing of which
bedding and furniture is thereafter to be charged in the annual
expense for maintenance of the said boys, according to the usage
and custom of the said Hospital : and to the end the boys, hereby
designed to be placed by the (icvernors of the Schools in the said
Hospital, may be maintained, clothed and educated, in the same
manner as the other boys in the said Hospital, be it enacted,
that the Governors of the said Schools, for the time being, shall,
yearly, for ever hereafter, pay, out of the surplus rents of the
lands vested m them, to the Governors of the said Blue Coat
Hospital, such yearly sum and sums of money, for the main-
tenance of such beys, as shall, by the Governors of the said
3C2 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Schools, pursuant to the aforesaid agreement, be placed in the
said Hospital, as the Governors of the said Hospital shall, from
time to time, bona fide, yearly lay out and expend for the main-
tenance of the like number of other boys in the said Hospital,
and all and every sum and sums of money hei'eby appointed to
be paid for the maintenance of the said boys to be placed in the
said Hospital, shall be paid by the Governors of the Schools,
quarterly, to the Treasurer or Agent of the said Hospital, for the
time being, and the accounts of such money shall be made up,
stated and settled, by the Governors of the said Schools and
the Governors of the said Hospital, once in every year, for ever
hereafter ; and also that the Governors of the said Schools shall,
for ever hereafter, out of the said rents, pay the yearly sum of
five pounds per annum to the Schoolmaster of the said Hospital,
for teaching the said boys to read, write and cast accounts,
as the other boys in the said Hospital are taught and instructed,
the same to be paid half-yearly, by equal payments, to such
Master ; provided, always, that if the Governors of the said
Schools shall, at ariy time, appoint any of the said boys by them
placed in the said Hospital, as aforesaid, to be instructed in the
mathematics, the said Governors, over and above the payments
herein before appointed to be made, shall pay and allow unto the
Governors of the said Hospital such sum and sums of money,
and after the same rate for instructing and teaching such boys
in the mathematics as are paid for instructing other boys in the
mathematics in the said Hospital, any thing herein contained
to the contrary notwithstanding.
And be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that the
Governors of the said Schools, for the time bemg, shall, from
time to time, at their own expense, put and place out apprentice,
to such trades and employments as they shall think fit, all such
boys as shall be by them, from time to time, sent to be maintained
and educated in the said Hospital, as soon as such boys shall,
respectively, be qualified for that purpose, and shall also, out
of the yearly surplus rents of the said lands, give such apprentice
fees with the said boys, respectively, as the Governors of the
said Hospital usually give with other boys cf the said Hospital,
by them put out apprentice to the like trades or employments,
it being the design and meaning of this Act, that all the boys
who shall be placed in the said Hospital by the Governors of the
said Schools, shall be by them maintained, educated and provided
for, in such and the same manner, and be subject and liable to
the same rules and regulations as all other boys in the said
Hospital are or shall be liable unto.
And be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that the
Lord Mayor and Recorder of the city of Dublin, now, and for the
time being, and two of the Aldermen of the said city, such as the
Governors of the said Hospital shall, from time to time, elect and
APPENDICES 303
appoint, shall, for ever hereafter, be standing Governors of the
Schools founded by the said Erasmus Smith, and added to the
thirty-two Governors in the said letters patent mentioned ;
and also that the Treasurer and three othei of the Governors of
the said Schools, now, and for the time being, such as the said
Governors of the said Schools, shall, from time to time choose
and appoint, shall be and are hereby declared to be standing
Governors, and added to the Governors of the said Hospital and
Free School of King Charles the Second, Dublin, commonly called
the Blue Coat Hospital.
Provided, always, and be it further enacted, by the authority
aforesaid, that all annual and other payments hereby mentioned,
intended, or appointed to be made to or for the use of the said
College of Dublin, or any Fellow, Lecturer, Member or Scholar
thereof, shall at all times, hereafter, be made to the Bursar of the
said College, for the time being, and that all annual and other
payments hereinbefore mentioned, or intended to be made
to or for the use of the said Hospital, or any boys to be placed
therein, shall, at all times hereafter, be made to the Agent or
Treasurer of the said Hospital, for the time being, and that the
receipt and receipts of the Bursar of the said College, and also
that the receipt and receipts of the Treasurer or Agent of the
said Hospital, respectively, for the time being, shall be a sufficient
discharge to the Governors of the said Schools, and their successors
for the same.
And whereas the Governors of the Hospital and Free School
of King Charles the Second, DubUn, are seized and possessed
of several waste plots of ground, in the city of Dublin, and suburbs
thereof, which, by reason the said Governors are restrained from
making leases for a sufficient term, to encourage building thereon,
lie waste and unimproved, to the great loss and prejudice of the
said Hospital and Free School ; be it therefore enacted, by the
authoiity aforesaid, that it shall and may be lawful to and for
the Governors of the said Hospital and Free School to make lease
of said waste plots, or any of them, whereof they are seized
of an estate of inheritance, and of which no lease shall be in
being at the time of making thereof, for any term or number
of years, not exceeding the term of ninety-nine years, at the best
and highest rent that can be got for the same, without line
or other income, in order that the said premises may be built and
improved upon, for the benefit of the said Hospital and Free
School.
And, be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that
if, at any time or times hereafter, the rents, revenues or profits
of the said lands, and tenements so set apart by the said Erasmus
Smith, shall happen to increase, or be raised to better or greater
yearly value than they now yield, or if any part of the present
yearly rents of the said lands shall be and remain in the hands
304 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
of the Treasurer or the Governors of the said Schools, over and
above the annual payments, charges and expenses heretofore,
or by this Act appointed to be made, out of the said lands, that
then, and in such cases, it shall and may be lawful to and for the
Governors of the said Schools, for the time being, from time to
time, for ever hereafter, to apply - and dispose of the residue
and overplus of the said yearly rents for and towards some public
work or use in the said College or Hospital, in putting cut poor
children to school, or apprentices, or in setting up and foundmg
one or more English School or Schools in any place or places in
this Kingdom, as the Governors of the said Schools, for the time
being, shall think most proper and convenient ; and, in like
manner, that if, at any time or times hereafter, the yearly rents,
revenues and profits of the said lands and tenements so
set apart by the said Erasmus Smith, shall decrease or grow
less, that then, and in such cases, it shall and may be lawful to
and for the Governors of the said Schools, for the time being,
and they are hereby empowered, from time to time, and at all
fimes hereafter, either to lessen the number of the Pensioners or
Exhibitioners of the said College, or to make such deduction
and abatement out of all or any the pensions, exhibitions,
salaries, or other yearly sum or sums of money hereby appointed,
or continued to be paid by them, as they shall think fit.
Provided, nevertheless, that no deduction or abatement
whatsoever shall be made out of the sums mentioiied to be
payable to the said Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the
City of London, Governors of the possessions, revenues and goods
of the Hospitals of Edward, King of England, the Sixth, of Christ
Bridewell, and St. Thomas the Apostle, or the salaries hereinbefore
appointed to be paid to the three junior Fellows herein before
mentioned, or out of any provision of this Act intended for the
boys, to be, by the Governors of the said Schools, placed in
the said Blue Coat Hospital, or to the Master for teaching of
the said boys, but that all the last-mentioned sums shall continue
and remain payable, anything hereinbefore contained to the
contrary notwithstanding.
And be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that the
Governors of the said Schools shall pay and be allowed the
charges of obtaining and passing this present Act ; provided
that nothing herein contained shall extend, or be construed to
extend, to defeat or prejudice the payment of the said sum of
one hundred pounds per annum, payable to the said Mayor
and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, Governors
of the possessions, revenues and goods of the Hospitals of Edward
King of England, the Sixth, of Christ Bridewell, and St. Thomas
the Apostle, but that the same shall continue to be paid and
payable, without any deductions or abatement whatsoever,
as if this Act had not been made.
APPENDICES 305
•
Saving, nevertheless, to the King's Most Excellent Majesty,
his heirs and successors, and to all and every other person and
persons, bodies politic and corporate, their heirs, executors,
administrators, successors and assigns, (other than and except
the said Governors of the Schools founded by Erasmus Smithy
esquire ; the Provost, Fellows and Scholars of the College of the
Holy and Undivided Trinity, of Queen Elizabeth, near Dubhn,
the Governors of the Hospital and Free School of King Charles
the Second, Dubhn, commonly called the Blue Coat Hospital,
in the City of Dublin, and the said i\Iayor and Commonalty and
Citizens of the City of London — Governors of the possessions,
revenues and goods of the Hospitals, of Edward King of England
the Sixth, of Christ Bridewell, and Saint Thomas the Apostle)
all such estate, right, title and interest, trust, claim, and demand
whatsoever, as they, or any of them, have or hath, or can or may
have, or claim of, in or to all or any of the said lands, tenements,
hereditaments and premises, as if this Act had not been made
any thing herein contained to the contrary notwithstanchng.
Carleton p. Holles.
Newcastle.
Roxburgh.
Cadogan.
X
3o6 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
APPENDIX C.
See p. 287.
The Clauses of the Municipal Corporations of Ireland
Act, 1840 (304 Vic. c. 108), reconstituting the King's
Hospital.
And whereas by Letters Patent of King Charles the Second,
bearing Date the Fifth Day of December in the Twenty-third
Year of His Reign, the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, Commons, and
Citizens of the City of Dublin, and their Successors, are constituted
a Body Pohtic and Corporate, by the name of '' The Governors of
the Hospital and Free School of King Charles the Second,
Dublin : " Ard wheieas the Government, Management, and
Direction of the said Hospital and Free School are now exercised
by Sixty-one standing Governors (whereof Four are the Treasurers
for the Time being and Three other Governors of the Schools
founded by Erasmus Smith Esquire, appointed by the Governors of
the said last-mentioned Schools, in pursuance of an Act of the
Parliament of Ireland, made in the Tenth Year of the Reign of
King Gi'org'(^ the First): Be it enacted, That from and immediately
after this Act shall come into operation in the said City of Dublin
the Persons who at that Time shall be the Governors of the said
Hospital, and the Survivors of them, and their Successors, to be
appointed in manner, herein-after mentioned, shall be and they
are hereby constituted a Body Politic and Corporate, by the
aforesaid Name of " The Governors of the Hospital and Free
School of King Charles the Second, Dublin," in the Place and
Stead of the said Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, Commons, and Citizens of
the said Cit}? of Dublin, who shall no longer be such body Pohtic
and Corporate, in like manner, to all Intents and Purposes,
as if the said Sixty-one Persons, and the Survivors of them, and
their Successors, had been the Persons appointed by virtue of the
said Letters Patent, instead of the said Lord Mayor, Sheriffs,
Commons, and Citizens, and all and singular the Hereditaments,
Sums of Money, Chattels, Securities for Money, and other
Personal Estate of the said Body Corporate, constituted by the
said Letters Patent, and all the Estate, Right, Interest, and
Title, and all the Rights, Powers, Privileges, and Immunities of
such Body Corporate, and all Rights of Action and Suit vested
APPENDICES 307
in such Body Corporate, shall be and arc hereby vested in the
Body Corporate, hereby constituted in the Place and Stead thereof
and the Body Corporate thereby constituted shall be subject to
the same Liabilities, and governed according to the same Regula-
tions, as the Bod}^ Corporate appointed by the said Letters
Patent shall be subject to and governed by ; Provided always,
that the Treasurer for the Time being, and Three other Governors
of the Schools founded by the said Erasmus Smith, such as the
Governors of the said Schools, shall from Time to Time choose
and appoint, shall and they are hereby declared to be standing
Governors of the said Hospital, in hke Manner as by the said Act
of the Tenth Year of the Reign of King George the First they
were made Governors of the said Hospital : Provided also, that
the Governors of the said Hospital hereby constituted shall never
consist of less than Fifty, and mat when and so often as any of
the Governors hereby appointed, or to be appointed as herein-
after is mentioned, (other than the said Treasurer and Three
other Governors of the said Schools founded by the said Erasmus
Smith), shall depart this Life, then it shall be lawful for the
Lord Archbishop of Armagh, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland,
the Lord Archbishop of Dublin, and the Lord Bishop of Meath,
for the Time being, or the Major Part of them, and they are
hereby empowered, by Writing under their Hands and Seals,
to appoint One or more Persons or Person in the Place or Places
and as a Successor or Successors of the deceased Governor or
Governors, or any of them, so as to make up, with the surviving
Governors, the Number at the least of Fifty Governors, including
the said Treasurer and Three other Governors of the said Schools
founded by the said Erasmus Smith ; and every person so
appointed a Governor shall be a Governor jointly with the
surviving Governors for the Time being, and shall have the same
Powers and Authorities as if he had been appointed a Governor
by this Act.
And be it enacted. That from and immediately after this
Act shall come into operation in the said City of Dublin so
much of the said Act of Parliament passed in the Tenth Year
of the Reign of King George the First as provides that the Lord
Mayor and Recorder of the City of Dublin, then and for the Time
being, and Two of the Aldermen of the said City, such as the
Governors of the Schools founded by Erasmus Smith Esquire,
should from Time to Time select and appoint, should for ever
thereafter be standing Governors of the said Schools, shall be
and the same is hereby repealed ; and that foiu- of the Governors
for the Time being of the said Hospital and Free School of King
Charles the Second, Dublin, such as the Governors of the said
Schools founded by Erasmus Smith shall from Time to Time
select and appoint, shall for ever thereafter be standing Governors
of the said Schools founded by the said Erasmus Smith.
INDEX.
In this Index Go\
means ('oNctnor of B. C. and B. C. means Blue
Coat School.
A.
Abercorn, Earl of, Gov., IGO.
Addison, Rt. Hon. Joseph, 135.
Aldermen, All Govs., G5 ; ConstitAi-
tion of, 1S9 ; Fines on, given to
B. C, 12g, 25 1. -289.
Allen, Sir Joshua, Gov., 48, 58, 65, 109.
Allen, Lords, 58.
Anne, Queen, 125, 142, 172.
Anne's, St., Guild Wardens of Govs.,
122.
Annesley, Sir A., Earl Angle.^ea, 2.
Arlington, Earl of, 34, 68.
Aston 's Quay, 237.
B.
Ball, Beni.. Gov., 211.
Ball, F. EirintTton, 208, 211, 275.
Ballast Ofhce, Grant to B. C, 131, 163.
Beasley, Ed., Gov. and Steward B. C,
227, "247.
Benefactors, Original Lipt of, 48.
Beresford, Lord John G., Primate,
Gov , 290.
Bcresfo.'d, Et. Hon. J. Claudius, Gov.,
274.
Berkeley, Lord, of Stratton, I,. L., 49,
65 ; His Corporation Rules, 52.
Berkeley, George, Bp. of Cloyne, 184.
Bishops, Consecration Fees to B. C,
86, 184.
Blackhall, Sir Thos., Gov., 203, 207,
210
Blackholl Street and Place, 211.
Blackpool of Dublir, G.
Blue Coat School —
First Hospital, 69.
Second Hospital, 214.
Charter of, 63 ; App. A.
Original Pujiils, 71
Boys expelled by Tyrconnell, 1 10.
Blue Coat School —
Boys sent to Christchurch, 116.
Numbers of, 1675—60; 1692—
32; 1702—82; 1714— 127 ; 1725
— 188; 1731—162; 1737—138;
1771—170; 1800—110; 1808—
130; 1840—123; See above
ytars.
Chaplains and Headmasters of, see C.
Alliance of B. C. with E. Smith
Board, 155, 244, 290 and App. B.
and C.
B.C. attacked by Lucas. Chap. IX.
Parliament in, C'liap. VIII.
Unruly Boys. 101, 170, 182,224. 2£0.
Theatricals in, 255.
Boulton. Primate, Gov.. 162, 183.
Boyle, Archbp., Chancellor and Pri-
mate, 54, 69, 92. 125.
Brabazon, Lord, 79.
Bradogue-Riveret, 27.
Bradstreet, Sir Saml., Rcc. and Gov.,
193, 213, 218.
Brewers, Tax on for B. C, 76.
Brewery in B. C, 130.
Brodrick, Chas., Archbp. Cashel,
Gov., 241, 252
Bysse, Sir John, Rec. and C. Buron.
"Gov., 55, 65, 120.
Cabal Ministry, 49, 83.
Cage Tor Corner Bojs, 18.
Cappoloughlin, Endcwn;ent of B.C.,
57, 250, 266.
Carlisle Bridge. 237.
Can-, Bishop of Killaloc, Chaplain
B. C, 120, 131, 1.53.
Carter, M. Rolls, 197.
Carteret, Lord, L. L., 167, 17(».
Cassels, Architect, 232. 233.
Chairs, Old, in B. C, 226.
310 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Chaplains and Headmasters of B. C,
Rev. E. Wettenhall, desig , 1673.
Lewis Prythirch, 1675.
Benj. Colquit, 1681.
Nich. Knight, 1685.
Thos. King, 1687.
Thos. Hemsworth, 1692.
Chas. Carr, 1700.
Rich. Gibbons, 1716.
Ralph Grattan, 1732.
Hamilton Morgan. 1763.
Allan Morgan, 1785.
Jas. Walker King, 1830.
Fielding Oiild. 1836.
Louis Le Pan, Head Master,
1839 ; Chaplain, 1848.
See under above years.
Charlemont, Viscount, Gov., 127.
Charlemont, Earl of, 209, 235, 236.
Charles, II,, Petition from B. C, 66;
Holds Council thereon, 66 ; gift
to Lord Mayor of Collar of S.S., 83.
Christchurch, Manor and Barns of, 22 ;
Litigation with Archbp. King, 131.
Churchill, Sir Winston, 38.
Claims, Court of, 33.
Clarendon, Earl of. L. L., 104.
Coaches and Chairs, Tax on, to B. C,
1,54.
Coghill, Sir Marmaduke, Gov., 161,
170.
Colquit, Chaplain, B.C., order appoint-
ing, 88.
Connolly, Rt. Hon. Sir. W., Speaker,
Gov.,' 165, 187.
Constantine, Aid, Robert, Gov., see
Three Years War.
Conyngsby, Lord, 112.
Cooke, SirSaml, L.M,. Gov.. 140. 144.
Cooke, Sir Saml. (2), 202.
Cooley, Thomas, Architect, 232, 239.
Corporation, Dublin, Riding Fran-
chises, 22 ; Constitution of, 55, 189,
191. Attacked by Lucas, Chap. IX.
Courtney, Master, in B. C, 276, 277.
Craddock, Dean of S. Patrick's, 221.
Crawford, The Gentle Georgina, 284
ct seq.
Cupola, 219, 245, 240.
D.
D ALTON, IMaster in B. C, 247, 256
ct seq., 276 et f.eq.
Damas Gate. 6, 11, 233.
Dame Street, 234, 238.
Danes in Dublin, see O.xmintown.
Davys, Sir Wm, Rec. and Ch. Justice,
47, 52, 63.
Desm5mieres, Louis, Gov., 49, 57.
Domville, Sir William, 64.
Donellan, Sir Xehemiah, Rec, Ch.
Justice, Gov., 115.
Dongan, Lord, Limerick, Gov., 108.
Dopping, Bishop Anthony, 88.
Downes, Lord Cli. Justice. Gov., 244 ;
Reform in B. C, 244-247 ; sends
more boys from E. Smith, 245, 251.
Drelincourt, Dean of Armagh, Bene-
factor of B. C, Gov., 133, 134.
Drogheda, The Lords, 21.
Drogheda Street, 21, 233, 237.
Dublin-
Aspect of, at Restoration. Chap. I.
Ancient Gates, Towers and Walls,
11, 15, 16. 99.
Ballast Office, 129.
Blackpool of, 6.
Boundaries, Old, 21.
Churches at Restoration, 16.
City Music, 17.
Drink in, 15.
Evolution of, 98, 124, 129, 163, and
Chap. XII.
Free School of, 36 et seq.
Recorders of, see R.
Regiments, 18, 57.
Social state of, at Restori.tion, 29
et seq.
Workhouse, 109.
Dudley, Lord, L. L., 173, 246.
E.
Education Commission, 1806^ — 242,
251; (1812) (Clare St.), 266, 275;
(1854), 225, 243, 263.
Ellis, Bp. Welbore, 132, 134.
Elrington, Rev Dr. Charles. Reforms
in B. C, 275, 290.
Encroachments, Fines for, to B. C, 75
Essex, Athur, Earl of, L. L.. 55, 91,;
His New Rules. 55, 105, 141, 189.
Essex Bridge, 90 et seq.
Eustace, L^ C, 7, 81.
Evelyn, John, Diary, 51. 120
Evolution of Dublin, see D.
Expulsion of Founders, 49.
Falkiner, Daniel, Gov., 143, 151, 183.
Faulkner, Aid. George, Gov., 205.
Fenby, Master in B. C, 279 et seq.
Fielding, Sir Chas., 127.
Forster, John, Rec, Ch. Justice, Gov.,
122. 139, 142, 147, 149.
INDEX
^11
Fostei, Rt. Hon. John, Speaker, Gov.,
215, 223, 241, 248.
Fownes, Sir Wm.. L. M., Gov., 135, 144.
Free School, Chap II.
French, Hunifre^', L.M., Gov., 173.
FuUerton , Sir James, 37. See Free
School.
G.
Galway, Earl of (Ruvigny), 153.
Gandon, James, Architect. 237, 238,
239.
Gardiner, Rt. Hon. Luke, 183,
George I., 135.
George II., 200; Statue. 201, 232.
George III., Recommends Lucas to
favour, 199 ; Statue by Van Xost,
234.
(Jeorge IV., Visits Dublin, 254.
George, Denis, Rec. and Baron, Gov.
218, 247.
Gibbons, Grinling, Sculptor, 120.
Gibbons, Rev. Rich., Chaplain B. C,
171, 175.
Ciore, Sir Ralph, Speaker, Gov., 102,106.
Grangegorman in Sylvis, 2."., 20.
Grattan, James, Rec. and Gov., 198.
Grattan, Rev. Ralph, Chaplain, 176,
182.
Grattans, The, and B. C, 176, et seq.
Gressingham, Aid., Silver Cup, 56.
H.
Hackett, SirThos., L. M. Gov., 107,
109.
Hamilton, James, Loid Clandebo}% 39.
Hanly, Master in B. C. 279, 288.
Harcourt, Earl, Simon. L. L., 205.
Hardwick, Earl of, L. L., 241.
Harrington, Karl of, L. L., 194.
Hart, Robert, Agent of B. C. 229, 243,
203.
Hartv, Dr., Gov., 247. 2'^7.
Harvey, Dr.. Phys. to B. C, Gov., 123.
Hemming, Capt., Benefactor, 225.
H.-)adiey, Archbp.. Gov., 160, 1S4.
Hoggen Green, 7.
Hone, Addison, Reg. B. C, 202.
Hutchinson, Aid. Daniel. Gov.. 49. 05.
TsouLT, La Belle, Tower, 13; Fountain,
22 ; Tristram and, 99 note.
I\orv, James, Architect of B. C. ;
TTis Plans in Brit. Museum, 208,
also 235.
Jamks, Duke of York, 35, 51.
James II., Chaj). X.
Jarndyce /•. Jarndyce, of B. C, 205
et seq.
Jervis, Sir Humphrev, 90 el sc^.
JoceljTi, I/3rd Newport, L.C.. Gov.,
183.
Joh.rston, Francis, Architect, 245.
Jones, Bp. Henrv, 8, 32.
Jcacs, Sir Thee ph., 21, 32.
Kane, ^ir Nathaniel. L. M. Gov.. 179,
attacked by Luca^^, 195.
Kavanagh, George. Benefactor B. C,
223.
Kilcotty. Tithes of, granted B. C.
223.
Kildare, Marouess of. Benefactor B. C,
203.
King, Rev. Thomas, Chaplain B. C,
110. 112, 127.
King, Sir Abraham Bracllej-, L. M.,
Gov., 159, 249, 254.
King, Archbishop, Bisho]) Derrv, 112 ;
4rchbp. Dublin, 127 ; aontlictwith
Christ Church, 131 : Letter to
Swift, 139; Great Gov. of B. C,
154 i:t sc'/. ; Form" alliance with E.
Smith's Board, 155; Meniorial i',
St. Patrick's, 158.
King, Rev., Sir James W. King. Bart.,
Chaplain of B. C, 159, 205.
Knight, Rev. N., Chaplain in B. C,
presentation to Archbishop, 101.
Kirwan, Dean of Killala, Charity
Sermon for B. C, 222.
Land Values of Endowments, 223, 251.
Latin in B. C. 89.
Latouche, James Digges, 189, 194.
Latouche, Rt. Hon. David, Gov..
216, 240.
Leake. Surgeon, B. C, 227, 250.
I>easiiig, Powers of, B. C, 150 ; and
App. B.
Leighton. Sir Ellis, Recorder, 49, 51.
Leinster, William, 2nd Duke, 207,
230.
Le Pan, Rev. Lonis, Chaplain, B. C,
283, 287. 289.
Linen Trade and B. C., 180.
Loftus, Dr. Dudley, 55, 1 13.
312 FOUNDATION OF THE KING'S HOSPITAL
Lord Mayor, Chairmen of B. C, 74;
List of, 98, 123. 152, 130, 164,
2(»2, 230, 253, 264, 291 ; Laws of
Election, 55, 137 189, 198, 202;
Fines to B. C. in liea of Feasts, 165.
Lucas, Dr. Cha., 42, chap. IX.,
statue by Ed. Smj'th, 199, 234.
M.
Macaulay, Lord, on Oath of siipre-
Jiiacy, 105.
McDerniot, Terence, L. M. Gov., Ill
Madden, Dr. John, Gov., 123.
Magee, Archbishop, Gov., 260.
Martyii, Gyles, Donor of Nodstown,
84.
Malone, Prime Sergeant, 193, 106.
Manners, Lord Chan., 2G7, 271, 272.
Marlborough, Duke of, at Free School,
38.
Mary's, St., Abbey., 21.
Mathematical School in B. C, 127.
Mead, James, Master, in B. C, 75.
Merchant Seamen's Act, Fines to B. C,
171.
Michan's, St., Parish and Church, 20,
22, 132, 238.
Midleton, Lady, Legacy to B. C, 158,
Morgan, Rev. Allan, Dean of Killaloe.
Chaplain B. C, 219, 2.55, 257, 263.
Morgan, Rev. Hamilton, Chaplain
B. C, 219.
Molyneux, Sir Thos., Gov., 123.
Molyneux, William, Gov., 122.
Mullingar, Tithe.- of. 87, 110, 223.
Municipal Corporation Act, 1840, 287,
and App. C.
Mynchin Fields, 7, 232.
N.
NiCOLTNi, Cavaliere, sings in B. C, 128.
Nodstown Endowments, 81, 242, 252.
Normanton, Earl, of, Archbishop,
Cashel and of Dublin, Gov., 216, 240,
see Somerton.
O.
Oath of Allegiance, 55, 97 ; of Non-
Resistance, 62 ; of Supremacy, 55
104.
Ormonde, James, Duke of, 35, 66, 78,
SO, 82, 86, 201.
Ormonde Bridge, 93.
Osborne, Henry, Benefactor of B. C,
117.
Ossory, Earl of, Chap. III. ; His
Letter to Corporation, 45, 66.
Ostmen in Dublin, IS.
Ould, Rev. Fielding, Chaplain, B. C,
276, 280, 288.
Oxmantown, 19 ct .'t'/. ; Allotments
of, 4:?.
Parliament, in B. C, Chap. VIII.,
165 ct seq.
Patrick's, St., Cathedral, ^lemorial of
Dr. King, 158 ; B. C. Boys march
to, 261.
Paul's, St., Church and Parish, 126.
Penal Laws, 159.
Pepy's Diary, 49.
Philpot, Aid., Silver Cups, 56.
Phipps, Constantine, Lord Chan., 132,
148, 149.
Physicians, K. and Q. College of, con-
nection with B. C. 123, 129 153, 166,
227, 247 ; Presidents of. Physicians
of B. C, 123.
Percy, Sir Anthony, L. M. Gov., 120.
Pooley, Bp. Raphoe, Benefactor B. C,
136
Preston, .Alderman John, Benefactor
of B. C, Gov., 57, 250.
Preston, John, Lord Tara, 57, 251,
270, 272.
Preston, Rev. Joseph, 270, 272.
Q.
QuiNN, Aid. Mark, 46, 49, 59.
Quin, James, 60, 62.
R.
Ram, Sir Abel, L. M. Gov., Expelled
by Tyrconnell, 107.
Read, Dr., Phys. to B. C, 288.
Reader, Enoch, Evicted Clov., 49.
Recorders Govrs., —
Sir John Bysse, Ch. Baron, 1660.
Sir Wm. Davys, C. J. King's B,
1660, 1680.
Sir Richard Ryves, 1080; Evicted
by Tjrrconnell, 1688 ; Lord
Commr. Great Seal, 1690.
Sir John Barnwell, 1688 ; Baron
Exch., 1689.
Gerald Dillon, 1689 : Evicted by
William III., 1690.
Thos. Coote, 1690; Justice K. B.,
1693.
INDEX
313
Recorders (jovts. —
Neheniiah Donnellan, 1693 ; Baron
Exch., 1H!)5; Ch. Baron, 1703.
Sir William Handcock, 169;i.
John Foster, 1701 ; Ch. J. Com.
Pleas, 1714.
John Rogerson, 1704 : Ch. Justice,
K. B., 1727.
Francis Stoyte, 1727.
Eaton Stannard, Swift's Rec, 1733.
Thomas Morgan, 1749.
James Grattan, 1756.
Sir Samuel Bradstreet. Bart., 1766 ;
Justice K. B., 1784.
Dufllcy Hussey, 1785.
Denis George, 1785; Baron Exeh.,
1795.
William Walker, 1795.
Sir Jonas Greene, 1822.
Sir Frederick Shaw, Bart.. 1828.
iSee iinder above vears.
Religious Education in B. C, 88, 101,
120, 157, 175, 176, 275, 279, and see
Clitirt'^r
Richards, Rev. T. R, 76, 291.
Richmond, Duke of, L. L., Gov., 248.
Rice, Chief Baron, 107.
Rogerson, Sir John, L. M. Gov., 114,
163
Rogerson, John, Rec. and L. C. J., 162.
Rokeby, Lord Primate, Gov., 118.
Royal Arms in B. C, 115.
Rutland, Duke of, L. L., 220.
Sackville Street, 233, 237.
Scaldbrother's Hole, 23, 210.
Shannon, Lord, Henry Boyle, 196.
Shaw, Sir Robt., 255."^
Shaw, Sir Frederick, 289.
Sheriffs. High, Fines to B. C, 207, 226,
241, 289.
Shiel, Rt. Hon. R. Lalor, 85.
Smith, Erasmus Board, 155, 240,
244.
Smith, William, Gov., Whittington of
Dublin, 76 et seq.
Smyth, Edward, Sculptor, 199.
Social State of Dublin, 1660, 29 et seq.
Somerton, Viscount, 240, see Norman-
ton.
Somerville, Sir James, Gov., 181.
Stanley, Sir John, 25.
Stannard. Eaton, Rec, Gov., 192.
Stephens. St., Green, allotted, 43.
Steyne Riveret, 2 ; Pillar, 5.
Stone, Primate, 196.
Strafford, Lord, Open Spaces order, S.
Sutton, Alderman, Gov., 225, 260.
Swift, Dean —
On Mark Quinn, 59; On Three
Years War, 140; Swift and Lord
Abercorn, 159 ; The Grattans,
176 ; Gov. of B. C, 159, 161, 162,
186 ; Influence on Lord Carteret
and Parlt., 169, 226; Three
Unpublished Letters, 184.
Tandy, J. Xapper, Gov., 216.
Temi)le, Sir John, M. R., 7, 65.
Temple, Su- John, Sol-Gen., 86.
Thingmount, Danish, 8, et seq.
Thorkill, 20.
Thome, Steward of B. C, 171, 178.
Three Years War, 137 et seq.
Tichborne, Sir H., Benefactor, 48.
Tickell, Irish Secretary, 171.
Tighe, Aid. R., Gov., 49, 57.
Toll Corn Annuity to B. C, 136, 221,
240, 242.
Tottie, L. M. Gov., 52.
Trench. Thos. F. Cooke, 151.
Trinity College Buildings, 231, 233, 235
Trinity, Guild of ^lerchants. Annuity,
to B. C, 121 ; IMathematical School
in B. C, 127 ; Wardens, Govs., 122.
Tristram and Isoult, 99 ; Note.
Tyrconnell, Duke of, Chap. V.
U.
Usher, Sir William, 3, 29.
Usher, Primate, 37, 158.
V.
Van Homrigh, Bartholomew, Gov.,
108, 116.
Van Nost, Statue of Geo. II., 201, of
George III., 234.
Vaughan, George, and B. C, 185.
Vierpyl, Simon, Statuary, 199, 209.
W.
Ware, Sir James, 20.
Wellesley. Marquess. 261.
Wellington, Duke of. 165.
Wesley, Lord Mornington, Gov., 165.
Wettenhall, Ed., Chaplin B. C. ;
Bishop of Cork, 41, 87.
Whateley, Archbishop, 288, 290.
Whitelaw, Rev. James, 243, 259.
314 FOUNDATION OF THE ^KING'S HOSPITAL.
Whiteway, John, Surgeon B. C, 226.
Whitshed, Cli. Justice, 60, 62.
Wide Street Commissioners, 235, 237.
Williamson, Rev. W., 131.
William III., King, 111; gives Collar
SS. to Lord Mayor, 112 ; Statue by
S. Gibbons, 118.
Wilson, Jolin, Architect and Regr.
B. C, 211, 227.
Wybrants, Barth., Regr. B. C. 116;
Tragedy in Family, 174.
Wyndham, Lord Chan., 166, 171, 267.
Y.
York, Frederick, Duke of, Duel with
Richmond, 248
SEALY, BRYKRS AND WALKER, PRINTERS, DUBLIN.
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